Eyes of Ice
by xavierroxas73
Summary: Naruto changed after the death of Haku. No longer naive and optimistic, Naruto strives to do everything in his power to survive. With a changed Uzumaki, can Konoha still stand? More importantly, will Naruto still be loyal to a village that was unloyal to its own? Probably not, but you'll need to read to know for sure.
1. Chapter 1

Eyes of Ice

Summary: Naruto changed after the death of Haku. No longer naive and optimistic, Naruto strives to do everything in his power to survive. With a changed Uzumaki, can Konoha still stand? More importantly, will Naruto still be loyal to a village that was unloyal to its own? Probably not, but you'll need to read to know for sure.

Chapter One: Unlocked Potential, through Death's Design

Naruto stood there, staring unwaveringly at Haku's grave. The rest of his 'team' had left a while ago, going inside to get some rest for the trip tomorrow, although Kakashi nodded in respect toward Zabuza and patted Naruto on the shoulder before leaving.

The idea of death had never been so real before. The idea that he could die, from anything like poison to a comrade's own misfire of kunai throwing, was chilling to him. He'd always ignored such feelings before, willing himself to ignore such things under the idea that He'd never die. That couldn't be him... But it nearly had been him.

If it hadn't been for Sasuke blocking what were surely fatal blows, he'd be dead. That particular thought made Naruto cringe, although the shock hadn't left his system. The words Zabuza had imparted also left their mark, the idea of just being a tool disgusting him beyond words.

Yet, he couldn't deny that thought process. He himself was proof of that, being a Jinchurriki. It was a word he'd been told when the Sandiame educated Naruto that he himself was not the Kyubbi, only its prison. He'd been given a life of hell on earth, to be a tool of war deterrence for a village that despised.

That infuriated him, immensely. Yet, the thought was tempered by the fact that ALL shinobi were considered tools, not just himself. A horrible thought, yes, but a comforting one. He had the flicker of an idea of changing that by becoming the best Hokage, but the Hokage had to be voted in. Who in their right mind would vote in a Jinchurriki?

Certainly not the Civilian Council and certainly not the rest of the Shinobi forces. It would be seen as an act of war to the rest of the villages that the idea of a Jinchurriki, already massively powerful in their own rights, had acclimated to gain that much more power to officially become the Kage on their own. It would drive the other villages to try and squish that village out of fear.

Still, if he couldn't be free by his own actions to the acceptance of others, then he'd be free regardless of their acceptance or fear. In fact, fear might even be better, even if he wouldn't like that option. Madara Uchiha was well respected in his many abilities of combat and ruthlessness, perhaps second only to the Shodaime Hokage himself.

Looking back on his thoughts and actions, Naruto shook his head lightly. He couldn't afford to be optimistic any more. It might just get him killed. He needed information, since he failed to gather much of anything in his Academy career. He jerked back slightly. He didn't remember tripping off of any rocks in that forest... His Shadow Clones?

He decided to test the theory. Muttering quietly with a single hand sign, Three Shadow Clones formed. They nodded to the original and left the scene. A few minutes later, and Naruto suddenly knew that one of his clones just got stabbed by a Kunai. It wasn't like a memory though: It was more like a split second film, watching coldly as a kunai thrust itself through his chest by another clone.

Amazing. His Shadow Clones could transfer information. However, and more importantly, Naruto had to think back on that information or else it would fade. The only reason why he remembered tripping over a rock was because no other clone had done the same action. Duplicate feeds would be removed.

He quietly dispelled the other two clones, considering the weight of what he just learned. This would increase his learning exponentially, if done correctly. He couldn't become a genius in, say, a week, but every day having a clone do a specific action and then thinking on that may just increase his learning.

This might help him recover lost time, and then some. With knowledge, Naruto would have a better idea of what to do to correct his actions, better understand how to better himself. Plus, he was curious to see if his Shadow Clones could master his chakra control. They essentially gained parts of his own reserves, so it would be viable.

Deciding to test this as well, he quickly summoned ten Shadow Clones. They'd be able to go up trees, as the original could do this, but what about other surfaces? He'd seen Zabuza standing on water, so perhaps that's feasible. He ordered them to practice doing these exercises slowly in the shallow pool to keep from dispelling. They nodded and left.

He went to a nearby tree in the meantime and began to take a nap while having Shadow Clones stand guard. Once he woke up, he went back over his memories, surprised to find three of himself able to stand on water, spar with each other briefly, and even able to do handstands as well. It seemed a lot easier to use chakra when the reserves were much smaller, so their control became easier.

Still, Naruto needed to see if he himself now held this skill. He went to the shallow water running through the river, and placed one step on the surface. He grinned as it held and stepped completely over the surface. He walked around normally on the surface of the water, subconsciously relegating chakra to where it was needed. He ran around in circles, before summoning fifteen clones and beginning a spar.

Noting the clear openings in his brawler stances, the clones tried to exploit them like an enemy would. Naruto winced as he was cut time and time again by his clones but he decimated them when he danced slightly out of their reach. He quickly returned to the river shore, noting that his cuts soon vanished. It seemed the higher his control, the higher his healing became. An amazing boon, if done right.

He quickly returned to his minor vigil in front of Haku's grave. Zabuza's sword remained as the headstone for his grave, while Haku received a simple kunai headstone. Personally, Naruto had the idea that all it would take was someone greedy enough to take the sword for it to go missing. A brief thought occurred to Naruto to take the items of worth from the two bodies below the ground, but Naruto decided it may be best to ask Kakashi-sensei first hand. He quickly sent a clone. May-have-been friends Haku and Zabuza they may be, but Naruto believed it would honor them more if he could use their weapons of choice effectively.

Kakashi appeared next to Naruto, saying quietly. "I heard your clone's question and I wanted to come here to ask you in person. Are you sure you wish to do this? I understand the need to honor their memory in this manner, but it's your choice. I wanted to hear it from you directly, Naruto."

Naruto breathed out heavily, feeling the mix of grief and clarity from his revelations. "I can't be naive and optimistic about this anymore. I've always shunned these ideas and thoughts, but this is necessary. I can't remain as I am and survive for a long time. The old me, the naive me, would abhor at the idea of taking a friends items from their dead bodies. Yet, the naive me would have died by Haku's senbon, believing that he would never die. I can't afford that. If I can honor them in the process by mastering their weapons and abilities, then it can be two birds with one kunai."

Kakashi nodded, before he made a series of hand signs and removed the earth covering their bodies. The stench of rot could clearly be smelled, but Naruto shook his head of the powerful urge to vomit. Kakashi didn't react at all, hinting that he was used to the smell of rotting, decaying, corpses.

Naruto summoned four Shadow Clones, directing them to strip the two missing ninja of all weaponry, items, and even clothing. Kakashi blinked in surprise before Naruto pointed out their clothing could make efficient armor if done correctly, to which Kakashi nodded in understanding.

Quickly and efficiently, said items were removed and sealed into a small empty scroll found on Zabuza's person. A similar scroll was used to seal away the sword being used as Zabuza's headstone, replaced by a similar kunai headstone. Dirt was placed back over the bodies with the similar jutsu from Kakashi.

"Naruto, you've grown up far faster than you had too, and I'm sorry for that. Of course, I'm willing to help you train with anything you need, within reason."

Naruto blinked before grinning slightly in thanks. He paused before saying quietly. "I need work on my Taijutsu, and I'd like scrolls on human anatomy, and such. I want to master Haku's senbon abilities, along with silent killing. Zabuza's sword may be powerful, but it's large bulk gives it away. I'm hoping to use its metal to form something akin to my use, after I look up its abilities that make it special."

Kakashi nodded before he returned to the house. Naruto remained there for a few moments before whispering thanks to the two missing ninja that shaped his life with their deaths. He left to sleep in a nearby tree.

The four-squad shinobi team left with a hero's goodbye, although Naruto said nothing except patting Inari on the head with a small grin. They left on their way to Konoha being a two-day trip.

Sasuke tried to banter with Naruto briefly, but Naruto remained silent, even as Sasuke tried to goad him. Sakura kept yelling how he was too stupid to pretend to be like Sasuke-kun, but Naruto still remained silent, occasionally flicking his hands at the wrist. Only Kakashi out of the other three knew that Naruto was directing nearby Shadow Clones to practice senbon on each other. His silence was less angst as it was concentrating on the near continuous feedback of clone popping.

Naruto found something interesting. His continuous use and training of his Shadow Clones lead to a deeper understanding of the jutsu. His Shadow Clones formed where he pulsed chakra, so he could summon them within a couple of feet of himself. The real trick was that he could pulse his chakra to form a clone, then further another pulse through that clone's form. In effect, with practice, Naruto could summon clones to take damage for clones near the area of attack. He could also harden their constructs with extra chakra, forming padding to stabilize them further.

This was useful as they could last much longer on senbon practice and spars. They couldn't last long against punches and kicks, but they could stop shuriken and kunai from going past them like wet paper. Useful if he needed them as a set of shields against weaponry.

He quietly thought further on the methods of his training. He couldn't train physically with his clones, as Kakashi pointed out they were only chakra constructs, not physical bits of himself. That didn't mean he couldn't learn how to throw senbon properly through observation, it just meant he'd still need to train a bit in order to gain muscle.

He still had the fatal flaw against Genjutsu, which frustrated him. There were only three main methods for non-Doujutsu Users, Kakashi informed him of them. First, was to halt all chakra in his body before expelling them forcefully. A brute method, but effective against some of the lower tier Genjutsu. Useless against Sasuke or any other Genjutsu casting Doujutsu user.

The second method was to have a team mate flood the chakra network with their own chakra, dispelling the Genjutsu. Effective, but only if the team mate could touch the person trapped. The third method was to use pain to jar the body out of dispelling the Genjutsu. Useful against all Genjutsu, but vastly ineffective against Doujutsu Users.

Effectively, Naruto was screwed royally against anyone wielding powerful eyes, i.e. Sasuke Uchiha and any Hyugga. That infuriated Naruto immensely, but an idea had formed. His Kage Bunshin was duplicates of himself, and held smaller reserves of his chakra. It would be possible to dispel Genjutsu through his Clones dispelling themselves or by channeling a small amount of his own chakra.

Much to Naruto's glee, that worked brilliantly when he tested it with Kakashi's permission. Kakashi used a high tier Genjutsu using the Sharingan implant he held, Sharingan: Dispersion of Mind Genjutsu and Naruto immediately broke out of it when a clone dispelled two seconds later from nearby. Naruto crowed with joy and success, and Kakashi chuckled along with him.

Naruto also had a similar idea from his experiences earlier. Back when he was testing his chakra control with ten clones, they learned chakra control much faster, and had smaller reserves. He explained the thought process to Kakashi that perhaps it was possibly for him to learn Genjutsu via his clones learning it and using it. Kakashi admitted he had no idea, as he neither tried the idea, and depended on his Sharingan to cast Genjutsu. He'd promised to check up with Kurenai, the resident Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha.

They soon reached the gates of Konoha, with the infamous Eternal Chunin welcoming them in. Naruto quietly nodded in their direction while discretely dispelling all the Shadow Clones currently training. He silently drifted through the memories, assimilating them into himself before moving in step with the rest of the group.

Once they gave their reports to the Hokage, the Hokage gave them a full S-rank pay for surviving, and gave them the week off to recover from their ordeals. Naruto nodded jerkily before leaving abruptly. He had no need or desire to stay in the same room as the one who may have manipulated him into service.

He quickly left to the training ground seven, as they now had a designated training ground. Sasuke was there practicing his kunai throwing, using his newfound Sharingan to perfect his aiming. Naruto considered annoying the Uchiha, but decided against it. He had his own training methods he needed to do.

Once he reached far enough to a nearby pond, Naruto quickly summoned forth a good forty Shadow Clones. They nodded before they quickly assembled into pairs of three. One would try and cast a Genjutsu; the other would also try and cast a Genjutsu. The one in the middle was there to break them out of a Genjutsu if they succeeded.

Nothing seemed to happen for a few hours, with some of the paired clones popping from chakra exhaustion, having exhausted their small reserves into the air to cast a Genjutsu. Naruto decided to train, doing pushups and jumping jacks. He very rarely got tired, but he could increase the speed of his limbs with practice.

After a while, a pair popped again with some chakra remaining. Naruto halted, before grinning. The Genjutsu was a simple one, causing the clone to feel a heavy desire to sleep, which most shinobi could easily break out of, but it meant success. He quickly dispelled the rest before summoning twenty Shadow Clones. They'd pair up into sets of two and work on casting more powerful Genjutsu.

Soon enough, it was nearing evening, and Naruto would need to get some rest. He asked the clones for reports, and they reported that while they could continuously pulse chakra into another clone, their bodies would either pop from too much chakra attacking the constructs, even with the heavy padding they all held now, or the chakra pulses were too irregular in size to be effective.

Naruto nodded, before dismissing them all. He'd need something more alive than a clone. He'd need a person to be able to practice. Hopefully this 'Genjutsu Mistress' may be of enough assistance. He set himself against a nearby tree, sleeping there with a set of clones as watch guards. Chakra constructs didn't need to sleep, often feeding off of their reserves for energy.

A small poke caused Naruto to flare his eyes open and flip right out of his post. He landed on the ground, nearly flinging a kunai. The clone that had poked him blinked before chuckling and pointing at the sun. It was clearly mid-morning, about ten by the judge of the sun's position. Nodding in thanks, Naruto dispelled the guards.

He blinked when he suddenly saw a black haired woman on the nearby tree, scowling at him. She spoke quietly, unhappy. "I knew Kakashi stated you could break Genjutsu through dispelling clones, but the fact that you can is surprising. It means you have a massive reserve of chakra enough to cause ripples in your own network. You stated a theory about using clones with smaller reserves to cast Genjutsu?"

Naruto nodded, shaking off the surprise. He quickly demonstrated using forty clones with much smaller reserves as mass demonstration. Rather than the impressed looks he usually was able to gleam for having such vast amount of chakra, the woman, Kurenai if he remembered correctly, scowled even further. She motioned him to dispel the clones, before speaking once he'd done so.

She spoke to him coldly. "I can't help you. That size of chakra reserves can't do more than cast simple genjutsu, which is impressive for one such as yourself, but I'm afraid nothing more can be done. I suggest investing in what is obviously your preferred skill, Ninjutsu."

She turned to leave, but Naruto's statement cut her off.

"I don't know if you hate me for being a Jinchurriki or for having too much chakra, but the fact that it could be either disgust me of your presence. More so, your inability to at least offer some critique on how to improve doesn't just make you pathetic, it also means you shouldn't be considered a 'Mistress' of anything. Goodbye, Kurenai. Don't let the dirt on your precious shoes of glass harm you on the way out."

She turned around quickly, eyes bright with fury. She made a series of hand signs, but Naruto already summoned another fifty clones as insurance. Sure enough, Naruto winced at seeing a vast fireball falling from above. A twitch, and Naruto was standing before Kurenai again, whom scowled at her Genjutsu failing.

He stated quietly, coldly. "I see. It's not me. It's you. I've stung your precious pride, that I could break your abilities despite your thinking of my lack of ability in your own expertise. It makes you furious, and it makes you feel both weak and worthless. Truthfully, you are indeed both weak and worthless. Sasuke uchiha could outstrip you the moment he has his Sharingan matured entirely, and I already outstrip you by tearing every piece of your work down to nothing."

Her scowl further deepened before she said scathingly.

"I've had to work for my abilities. I had to strive pouring every moment in my studies and my chakra in order to get to where I am. The Uchiha's gain it out of sheer blood and you are no different with your large reserves and luck. It's not fair for the rest of us."

Naruto chuckled darkly, before he stated quietly.

"It may have escaped your notice, Miss Kurenai-of-My-Life-Isn't-Perfection-and-Ease, but life isn't fair. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can live your life without looking down on others and yourself. You think I like being a Jinchurriki? My life is bad enough being a pariah, but knowing my very existence is viewed as a War Deterrent, that all my value is built upon War, is especially upsetting. You know what made me feel better?"

Naruto stalked forward, cold even strides with his eyes flaring brightly at Kurenai's own, while she continued to step back until she ended up against a tree. He stepped forward until their faces were merely inches apart, with her eyes showing slight fear despite being taller than himself.

"That we are all tools, tools to our Kages, whom are tools to their people, whom are tools to their own subconscious minds and desires. In the end, everyone is a tool, at the very least to their minds and emotions. Such as yourself, with your own misgiven pride."

He paused, taking a breath before finishing flatly. "That's why I wanted to learn Genjutsu, why I wanted to learn how to manipulate the mind. The one who can manipulate the best isn't the one with the stronger, more imperviable Genjutsu. It's the one who understands what makes humanity tick, and how to exploit that ticking. Who better to do that than a Jinchurriki, whose very name means 'Power of the Human Sacrifice'?"

She cringed slightly before regaining her composure and glaring at him. She seethed out.

"I'm going to report you for insubordination, you little brat."

Naruto snorted, before grinning darkly. "You know what I needed before you came here, Kurenai-san? I needed a live human to test my Genjutsu on a higher level. I'm sure you won't mind. I mean, it is your specialty, isn't it?"

Kurenai flinched back before she said "No, I'm leaving." She turned to leave... and found she couldn't move.

Naruto smirked at her, before crooning to her like she was a puppy. "I hope you don't mind, I've been studying human anatomy at the bequest of a friend I could've had, but he died recently and gave me wonderful senbon as a gift. You won't be able to move for a good four hours, and by then, I might even learn how you tick at a personal level."

She whimpered as Naruto cackled quietly, his blue eyes cold and unwavering.

Naruto said quietly, glee hidden under a voice of smooth determination.

"Let's Begin."

End Chapter One

A/N: What'd you think? I'm hoping it's not a bad start. I tried to make the nigh-illogical world of jutsu and such a bit more reasonable. Did I pass? Fail? Let me know. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Eyes of Ice

Chapter Two: Thy Will of Thy God

Naruto frowned as he continued to pump his chakra through the woman's body, which shuddered briefly before stilling. She'd been like this for over an hour now, although her chakra network fought quite briefly, a few minutes at best before being overwhelmed entirely.

Genjutsu theory was based on using precise control in order to send a series of minor pules in a continuous stream into the brain of an opponent, often times why the Genjutsu was broken when using pain or from halting their chakra and expelling it vigorously.

Naruto had a nudging idea of a second theory in mind. Chakra didn't stay within the vessels. It permeates the entire body, every cranny and tissue it can find, which is why most ninja could live rather long and vibrant lives with quick deaths without permanent damage of a civilian nature. It's also why disease rarely killed a ninja, despite often times living in horrid conditions.

His theory was that by filling an opponent's body with his own chakra, filling every tissue to the brim with his own chakra, he could cast much more powerful Genjutsu effortlessly without much concentration... Perhaps even permanent mind-altering Genjutsu if he could maintain the tissue filled state until the body began producing his chakra naturally.

The beauty of this method was that the body did this naturally, so overwhelming the chakra network would ensure the process would go much, much, faster, although limiting him to one position for minutes at a time. Luckily for Naruto, Kurenai didn't hold much of a chakra reserve as she did with her chakra control.

All the better for him, since it would take as much chakra now permeating her tissue in order to cleanse it without dying of chakra shock. He'd already followed through on the procedure; he just wanted to be extra careful in order to make her mind submit. It wouldn't due for him to be killed off when he'd just begin his rise to survival.

She shuddered lightly, as blue lines covered her body briefly, mapping every vein and artery. Even her red eyes gained a deep blue tint briefly for a second. He removed his hand from her stomach, which he'd done the transfer there as a sense of irony. He waited for a few moments, grinning as her eyes opened again.

They were empty, unfocused. Naruto placed his hand on her stomach again, molding the chakra in her body to begin work on a series of Genjutsu he'd wanted to test on.

It was absolutely absurd to him that so few saw the potential in the art of mental manipulation. Not that the Users gave them much justice in that regard, using pathetic examples like making people fall asleep and fireballs falling from the sky. No, Genjutsu's brilliance was in the subtle effects, like making an enemy question their own motives, bolstering an allies attack with rage at their enemy.

The idea Naruto was testing was manipulating two parts of the brain. He intended to halt the brain's concept of time, and the part of the brain designed to lace memories with emotions. He could strip her of her emotions, but that would make her harder to manipulate, and would be detrimental to begin with. No, it was much more practical to begin altering her memories of him with mass adoration and understanding, perhaps even a fierce secret fire of loyalty.

That wasn't the only thing he was tinkering with either. He also intended to manipulate her sense of morality, stripping it slowly inside her mental bubble of endless time, as her mind wouldn't detect time passing once he finished. The best part was that Naruto intended to reinforce the same effects on her mind for the next couple of hours. Much like his own beliefs had locked away his potential, he wanted her beliefs to lock away any thought of betrayal.

Two hours passed with Naruto occasionally pumping more chakra when needed. It was, in a word, boring. The results were well-worth it. Kurenai opened her eyes and said happily. "A complete success. Feeling's returning to my body so that way I wouldn't get harmed during the procedure and time felt endless in that. I suggest getting a chunk of chakra metal or maybe a chain of Shadow Clones to pass on the chakra into the body of an opponent to ensure safety, Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded in agreement, and removed the senbon on the back of her neck. She winced before nodding gratefully. Naruto watched in observation, interested if any resistance could be detected in her body language. There was none. His Genjutsu may take a long time, but it seemed sufficient.

If only he could create a seal to store chakra in a seal to do the process for him... Actually, a simple storage seal over a person's skin would be apt enough, if rather crude and only able to do one 'command'. Another theory for another day.

She soon left after righting down several ideas and theories from the knowledge she knew. He looked over each of them, and, despite his initial judgement of her being a specialist ninja, they seemed pretty sound. She offered how elemental chakra was often as a form of shell to move a piece of that element, and that enough training might plant a Genjutsu in that elemental attack to circumvent an opponent from cleaving his attacks headfirst.

The second theory was using chakra strings, or 'cables', as some of the legendary clans could strengthen their chakra strings to be unable to be eaten or cut by the amount of layers. Naruto had the idea that he could perhaps create a similar effect with controlled density of the chakra layers and transfer Genjutsu that way.

All in all, not bad for a person given the job to write theories on the spot. It'll take effort though, and lots of research. He'd been able to get by on Kakashi's advice and his own experimentations, but those could only go so far. He'd need actual data.

He quickly created another fifty clones. Forty would ransack, he meant borrowing, books from the prison of hell... he meant think library. He'd also have to be careful to avoid the monsters of the nine circles of hell... No, the civilians were the real demons, so he mentally called them that... Kinda. What could he think up as an excuse? He has a world to conquer... He meant negotiate with peacefully.

While he was in the middle of serene naive thinking only an idiot would do, Madara Uchiha was a bloody saint working to make the entire world feel eternal peace for everyone's sake aside from his own selfish ends.

Far, far, away, in a universe labeled 'Canon', Madara Uchiha suddenly sneezed. He suddenly felt the urge to squash all the Uzumaki's with blonde hair. The sad part was, there's no Uzumaki with blonde hair. He wept for a week on the travesty of a world with no Uzumaki with blonde hair for him to squish like a bug. Then continued to fight for the Uchiha, and gain ultimate power with little to no drawbacks.

Because... Reasons... Anime Logic... Fuck it, he was Madara Uber... He meant to think Uchiha; he gave no excuses to anyone dammit! Well, maybe whining a bit to everyone that only his life was absolutely awful might help make him feel better... Plus no one would ever tell him to shut up, because he was Madara Uchiha. He'd just fry 'em. Maybe even have their eyeballs on toast as a joke. Nah, Madara decided against it. Whining would be Sasuke's job... Who the hell was Sasuke? He needed a long nap... Or maybe kill someone in the name of Uchiha. That might make him feel better.

Naruto continued to think and plan on how to become absolutely fabulous while still retaining his man card... He shook his head lightly. Clearly he'd been playing too much Legend of Zelda recently... Wait, what the hell was Legend of Zelda? Maybe he needed the week off to rest before he went insane.


	3. Chapter 3

Eyes of Ice

Chapter Three

Naruto sighed in his apartment, laying there as he focused on what were clearly hundreds of clone's memories now assimilating into his mind. He'd spent the rest of the week mostly absorbing vast amount of information, often times halting to eat or do some basic exercises.

It was a slow going process, despite his enthusiasm spreading into his clones. The problem was that he hadn't completely mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu. A novice was able to summon clones easily; an expert would be able to tweak the basic parts of the structure.

A Master would be able to relegate the information absorption process into other clones, expediting the process a thousand fold. He'd yet to reach that level, which could take years at the least.

Still, not all hope was lost. He could absorb information fairly well, given a few moments of time. He suspected it was because of the Kyubbi, although he was curious if it even referred to itself in that manner, considering the Ichibi was named the Shukaku.

Shaking his head, he blinked when Kakashi appeared inside his kitchen. He blinked in surprise before nodding to Kakashi, taking out a piece of chicken salad for lunch. Kakashi watched Naruto quietly before casually saying.

"You seem to be doing much better than I expected. I honestly thought you'd curl up in a ball and stay there."

Naruto frowned, pausing as he set down the fork. He said slowly, thinking carefully.

"It just doesn't feel right, mourning and doing nothing for an entire week. It does those more by using this time to hone my skills, to make sure I don't waste the time they gave me. It helps that I've mastered senbon use through storage seals, attached to the sleeves of my new jacket. The blade Zabuza had, Throat Cleaver, is considered the weakest of the swords. Personally, I consider it the strongest."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Naruto, as if saying. 'How?'

"The blade reforms from just a few droplets of blood. More than that, the blade's abilities are dangerous in that it keeps this ability in the metal itself. Say I stab you, and you cleave the blade into fragments with a Jutsu."

Kakashi stilled, as the thought followed suit, whispering in a mix between awe and horror. "If even the smallest fragment touches my blood, it would grow from the inside. I'd die, between moments and even days as it shreds my inner organs."

Naruto nodded in confirmation, before grinning. "The blade's true beauty is its benefit outside immediate combat. I was curious why such an immense blade was used for cleaving and silent killing, when it was so large and noticeable by anyone even a mile away. My curiosity was sated, when I did this."

Naruto grabbed the blade, which was resting on a nearby wall. He twirled it in the air, before attaching it to his back. Clearly being held by chakra alone, the sword flickered, gaining a tinge of dark blue that surrounded Naruto. Within a few moments, Naruto faded from sight.

Kakashi blinked in shock before revealing his Sharingan implant. There was nothing there, although Naruto's calm confirmation he was still in front of him jarred him immensely. He whispered hoarsely, feeling the rising awe and horror in his tone.

"The blade allows you to hide from even the Sharingan. I can't even smell you with my enhanced nose. Does it hide you from all senses... aside from sound?"

Naruto chuckled, the laughter vibrating throughout the room. "It does a bit more than that, but it's costly. To maintain this 'field', I need to constantly channel 10% of my chakra reserves. Zabuza and you combined wouldn't even reach 5% of my capacity. It loses very little chakra, but it does take quite a bit to create the field, not to maintain it."

Suddenly Kakashi nodded in relief. That was why the blade was so weak. No one would ever have enough chakra to activate the blade from its dormant state. Well, aside from the Uzumaki and the Jinchurriki. Naruto, being both, would have enough in spades.

Naruto began listing pros versus cons. "The field blunts down sound to the point where I could shout in a room and no one would hear me, but it costs a bit more chakra to do that. It remains invisible to the fabled Sharingan and Byakugan, which I tested when I wanted to watch their demonstration of their infamous Taijutsu. Smells are nullified and chakra sensing doesn't work, which I tested with Iruka's permission."

Kakashi blinked all the more thankful. Zabuza getting access to this function would have made him unstoppable. As it was, if he hadn't gotten so over-confidant, he himself would have lost. He needed to get back in shape.

"The drawbacks are rather simple. First, the field doesn't protect me against AoE, Area of Effect attacks, and it fails against any attacks directed at me. It's not a solid membrane, more of a static field. Second, its power fails once I've used a majority of my chakra, as the ten percent would sink back into my body when the rest is used up. Overall, it remains a very useful support ability, or if I need to move around silently for assassinations."

Naruto reappeared when the blade moved from its position on its back. He placed it back against the wall before turning to Kakashi. "Its ability is only really useful if put in standby, so to speak. Moving it from my back entirely halts the field. It does have the function of using elemental chakra, but I don't know my affinity."

Kakashi nodded in agreement, before giving Naruto a pack of paper and a small piece of something akin to sand paper. "The pack of paper is registration for the Chunin Exams if you wish to enter, and the sand-paper material will tell you your primary affinities."

Naruto nodded, grabbing the sand paper piece before channeling chakra. The paper split in half, which then split in half... and then continued to split in half again. Then the pieces suddenly fell to the ground, soaked. Naruto looked up at Kakashi who blinked at him before eye-smiling.

"Nice set, Naruto. You must have gained considerable control, because you have two primaries. Wind Nature, and Water Nature. An exact opposite to Sasuke's affinities, being a Lightning primary affinity and Fire secondary... and exactly like Haku's chakra. Ice is a specific ratio of Wind and Water. Maybe once you master both Wind and water nature, you can try and focus on the ratio needed for Ice? It won't be easy, but it might be done."

Naruto looked dumbfounded, before he looked down at a senbon he'd been twirling lightly in his hand. Perhaps this was a sign of appreciation for his efforts? He hoped so, but such 'signs' were often luck, but he'd take the comfort and run with it nonetheless.

Kakashi gave him six scrolls to work with, each detailing a step on further mastery for each Nature. He recommended Wind Nature first, given he could use it along with his new 'field' to cause chaos against any would-be enemies. Naruto nodded in understanding, and Kakashi left with a wave.

Naruto quickly gobbled down his meal, no longer wanting to sit down and savor his meal. He had new things to try, new abilities to carve for him. He quickly left for the training ground.

Despite being mid-day, Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. A bit amused that the Uchiha may be sleeping in, Naruto stalked further into the forest until he came upon the pond he'd now considered his training subsection. Clones were busy sparing one another, fiddling with an experimental Taijutsu mix they were trying.

He quickly summoned another three hundred, wincing at the feeling of emptiness he often felt when using large chunks of his immense reserves. They quickly got to work on trying to slice a leaf in half.

Naruto quickly realized that little to no progress was being made. He stopped them before asking them on feedback. They stated that while they could use chakra fairly well out into their hands, given the much smaller reserves each of them had, none of their chakra was physically tearing the leaf in half.

How does wind work, he asked them. They responded with the general response that wind was... wind. They had no idea.

Naruto frowned at that. He conceded that expecting to master a Nature he knew nothing about was fairly stupid. He quickly sent a three man group to find Kakashi to ask what causes 'Wind' to cut properly.

The response he received caused him to twitch in irritation. Really? 'The books of the perverted kingdom God Jiriaya caused the wind to cut, the water to rain, and glory upon on all ye men.' Naruto scowled before he assigned the rest of his new contingent to just go ahead and work on the sparing sessions. They nodded and quickly began practice.

A waste of time on his part, but at the least he could refine his Taijutsu a little. Plus, it would still take a good two weeks to even begin to wield wind properly, so he might as well work on something else before the Chunin Exams to begin.

He quickly turned to a clone, which appeared before him, smiling. "The Shunshin has been sufficiently mastered to move use quickly. We can do it with each other without blurs within ten feet of each other. Any further causes slight blurs depending on distance and chakra use."

"We also are here to report that our Genjutsu seems efficient on both insects and animals. We can use Genjutsu through the ground now as a transfer unit, although we need to stay in one place for a bit to do so."

Naruto grinned and told them to dispel, they did marvelously. They nodded, grinning, before they popped. Naruto quickly reviewed the information, taking a couple of minutes. He opened his eyes, grinning. The skills he had should be enough against most moderate Genin, although he'd take some precaution as usual.

He nodded to the mass clones, telling them to dismiss themselves for now. He'd need the remaining five days in order to assimilate the information and then physically practice it to get himself to scratch. They nodded in unison, with a couple of them even saluting while saying, rather jokingly. "Hai, Naruto-sama."

They popped, and Naruto went to his home to begin his work on absorbing the information. There wouldn't be much there, as vast amounts of the feed were duplicates, but the ones who advanced the most would still be viable and would also be worth close observation time.

The next five days passed rather quickly, with Naruto bringing himself up to his standards on what he considered his speed and strength... This essentially meant as fast and as powerful as possible. On the day of the Chunin Exam, Naruto picked up an outfit from a nearby Weapons-Armor shop.

They were surprisingly kind, as they had an adopted daughter named Tenten whom was a Genin.

The outfit was comprised of the Hunter-Ninja outfit from Haku and the heavy weighted pants and thin cotton shirt Zabuza often used, along with a set of bandages. They'd spun it about, taking it apart before putting it together into an outfit he could use for himself.

The Hunter-Ninja cloak now held the weights of the pants, with the pants cloth now weaved into the fabric of the cloak, making it much more sturdy and damage-resistant. The cotton was lined on the inside, making it smooth and comfortable, as well as easier in order to disperse/retain heat when necessary. They'd also inscribed seals that he'd asked for, at a higher price of course. It held a hood that had a minor sticking seal to keep it from slipping off, and they kept Haku's mask intact for his memento.

The mask did have slight alterations, such as removal of any Mist symbols, and a couple of seals inscribed to keep it from falling off and also to strengthen the already durable metal. He'd also bought standard black heavy leather pants and shirt to accompany the material accordingly and already packed up his weaponry.

He paid them a premium to put a similar storage scroll seal over into the sword's chakra metal, so that way he could recall it to his back without fear of losing it. He sealed it away into the seal inscribed on his back.

All of that wouldn't have been possible unless he'd been given S-rank pay, with just enough left over to pay for the next three month's rent.

He quickly slipped on the outfit, standing in front of a mirror with the mask on his face. A seal inscribed on the inside, which was done by Haku perhaps, that allowed him to see as if there was no mask in the way. Still, to see him looking akin to Haku was rather chilling, but he'd do the duo proud.

Naruto also had his usual pouches despite making his cloak look slightly bulky, but they were filled with henge'd Shadow Clones, both for Genjutsu disruption and for any reconnaissance his clones may be useful for. He'd also taken a 'leaf' out of the Aburame's book, having thousands upon thousands of clones he'd stored in storage scrolls for use later. One tap and he'd have access to an army equal to his full chakra reserves.

Deeming himself fit for combat, he left the scene for the Academy, which was admittedly an odd place for the Chunin Exams to begin in. He'd held the sword against his back, waiting a few moments before becoming cloaked in his 'field'. He really needed to name that ability at some point.

He quietly walked in step behind the Uchiha and Fan girl, amused as the Uchiha was clearly being irritated by the girl's nagging. He decided to have some fun by sealing his sword, thus his field collapsing, before whispering quietly.

"Morning."

The reaction was immediate. Sasuke twitched around, a kunai in hand. Sakura had jumped back in surprise, but nothing as extreme.

Naruto had grabbed the Uchiha's wrist, squeezing ruthlessly until Sasuke was forced to drop the kunai. Naruto stared into the Uchiha's now two-tomoe'd-on-both-eyes glare.

He whispered softly, darkly. "Don't ever try and aim to kill me again, Uchiha-san. You are too weak to do so. Know your place." His cold blue eyes flashed dangerously, egging the Uchiha to try and cast a Genjutsu.

He didn't take the bait and apologized quietly. Naruto nodded, letting his wrist go.

"I understand your desire for revenge to kill your brother because I once had the desire to kill someone for making my life hell. The only reason why I'm not going insane with the desire is rather simple: He's already dead, and has been for my entire life."

Sasuke's eyes widened, before he nodded with sudden appreciation. At least one team mate understood what he felt. The only problem was the other one being a damn fan girl to hell. He was certain he could stab her in the chest repeatedly and still be 'forgiven and loved'. Next thing, he'd end up making love to her and giving her a child! What a horrible universe that would be to live in.

Sakura was about to yell at Naruto for being too 'cool' before he glared down at her. "Shut up. Your weak, you don't train, and you are more than likely to die in these exams."

She cowered briefly before snobbishly ignoring him. Sasuke admitted he'd freaked out because Naruto looked like Haku. Naruto nodded with his reasoning and said in reply.

"If you had to rip an enemy's body apart to become stronger, would you do it?"

Sakura turned green, before going back to ignoring him, not noticing that Sasuke nodded without hesitation.

To Sasuke, everything and anything was fair game to get what he needed to kill Itachi. Well, except for living in complete hatred and killing his best friend. First, no one was a friend, just a potential ally. Second, while he currently lived for vengeance, he'd happily go off and eat tomatoes to his heart's content when he was done.

They traipsed toward the third floor for the exams. As they reached the second floor, Sasuke noted that they were in front of the room 301. Obviously a Genjutsu. Before he could state the fact to express how he was better than the rest, Naruto clamped his hand on the back of the Uchiha's shirt, hissing to him quietly.

"This is to stop any who are feeble minded. Leave them to their fate. Let's go. The less competition, the better."

Sasuke scowled, but nodded. They moved on to the next floor, although they hadn't moved more than three spaces when a green blur launched itself toward them. Naruto reacted quickly, focusing his chakra appropriately.

As the figure stopped in front of them, Naruto had summoned a Shadow Clone to appear in front of Sasuke to take a blow while a duplicate Shadow Clone formed behind the figure, a kunai at the teen's throat.

The teen shouted about the power of Youth, and a bunch of nonsense. Naruto sighed, dispelling the duplicates. The figure introduced itself as Rock Lee and wanted to challenge Sasuke. Sasuke was, again, about to accept, but Naruto intervened calmly.

"We have limited time as it is. Perhaps we can schedule a spar after the exams? After all, you wouldn't want your 'Youth' burnt out because you were too hasty, Lee-san."

Rock Lee's eyes widened before he agreed enthusiastically before running off with his, poor, team mates being dragged along to the entrance. Naruto and the rest soon entered the room, with Kakashi once again imparting the need of teamwork before vanishing.

Naruto quickly noted the growing hostility of the foreign shinobi. The problem was that aside from himself, no one really noticed from his own group, which he deduced that the foreign shinobi would take as a slight against their own skills. The hostility ended for a few moments when they glanced at him, sparks of fear in their eyes when they saw his mask. Despite no symbols of the Mist, it clearly looked like a Hunter-Nin mask, and that told the others of his presumed 'skill.'

'Great.' He groaned mentally. He'd just made himself a target for a few ambushes. Not that it'd do much: Ambushes didn't generally work on a person carrying thousands of duplicates with an ability to become undetectable on a given moment.

Nonetheless, a shinobi wearing a leaf headband came forward. He presented himself by the name of Kabuto Yakushi, and that they should try and pipe down, not draw attention to themselves. While Naruto agreed with the advice, he was wary. Advice from any shinobi was best taken with several tons of salt. He only really trusted Kakashi because, as a sensei, it was in his best interest for his students to grow.

He stood silent, although alarm bells rang when Kabuto claimed it was his sixth Chunin Exam. Konoha may be lax in letting Genin try to be Chunin as many times as they wish, but after three or four tries they either gave up the prospect or seeked to be promoted through working promotions. Showing off his ninja cards turn those alarm bells into a train whistle. This guy was either an excellent spy, or a Chunin implant from a spy network in Konoha, and he doubted it was the latter.

Sasuke wanted to know about Gaara, and Sakura wanted to know about Ino. Naruto said nothing, watching carefully. The way he then stated casually how the Sound were a fairly new village just starting up, brought his attention to another factor: The Sound Ninja nearby were listening, stilling themselves before Sound was even mentioned. As soon as that statement was made, one of them rushed toward Kabuto.

It was a set-up, to both lower the Sound's value, and to divert the people's general attention of a ninja knowing that much information. It was smart, but Naruto wasn't a Prankster King for nothing. Not many could paint an entire Hokage Mountain in broad daylight with bright orange equipment on himself and still evade capture for another three hours.

He sat down in his seat and they were given an exam. They had nine questions with a verbal one at the end as the tenth question, and would be disqualified if they got caught. A quick overview of the test soon showed the material was clearly above the Genin's standards of questions, at least mid-Chunin.

He withdrew a single arm from his sleeve, opening a pouch on the inside of his cloak. He poked a Kunai, which then changed into a small bug. It flew out of the cloak's sleeve, using its own Shadow-Duplicated sword on its back to remain undetected. After five minutes, the bug flew back into the cloak and dismissed itself. Naruto quickly wrote down the entire information, before flipping the paper over.

Ibiki chuckled mentally at Naruto's balls. He waited for a full two minutes before writing down all the answers and flipping his paper over. He was curious as to what the kid did, because unlike the somewhat obvious Genin in the room, Naruto had evaded detection.

Naruto waited patiently, closing his eyes. He reviewed everything going over what he knew, what he could do, and what he may/should need later. The entire Chunin exams couldn't be a test exam. It'd be rather pathetic.

Once the majority of the time was up, Ibiki explained/barked to the Genin that they had a choice. Take the tenth exam, and risk never become a Chunin ever, or don't take it and try again next year. Much to Naruto's growing disappointment, and losing points on his-might begin-to-believe-humanity meter, some began to raise their hands, and began a flood.

Keeping both feet firmly on the ground, Naruto enacted a Genjutsu on the rest of Team Seven. He couldn't mold it rather well, but he could impart some information to the duo before either, by 'either' he meant Sakura, did something stupid.

'Don't listen. This is the tenth question. Those without the nerve or mettle will never have the backbone to become Chunin anyway. Plus, the foreigners are idiots because Ibiki holds no jurisdiction beyond Konoha's walls.'

The other two in Team Seven jerked in surprise, looking at Naruto. The idea that Naruto could use Genjutsu was surprising, but it seemed heavily useful now, especially since Sakura nearly did raise her own hand.

The remaining groups passed, and Anko made her wonderful entrance. Naruto read the black cloth that stated 'The wonderful, amazing, single Anko! :D' He chuckled quietly, and left with his team once they were told to meet up at the Forest of Death.

Once there, she put on a bit of a show about how at least half wouldn't make it, and that they all needed to sign waivers so no village can attack them for their deaths within the forest. She explained about the Earth and Heaven Scrolls before assigning each team either at random inside a small scroll case to hide whom got what.

Naruto took the scroll case, pocketing it with a nod before leaving. They soon entered the Forest, knowing they needed to get away from the bloodbath that would soon occur near the entrances. Sasuke grumbled on how Sakura should hold the scroll, since they'd be the one's fighting. Naruto initially nodded in agreement to his logic before pointing something out.

He could summon Shadow Clones. Each Shadow Clone also held a duplicate of what he wore, down to their properties. He could easily cause an enemy anguish if he could transform himself into many, many, duplicates of their current team set up and raid the forest. Sasuke looked gratified for the moment that they held such an advantage before grunting that Naruto should get on with it.

Taking out a scroll filled with his chakra, he quickly used the chakra within the scroll to summon a thousand Naruto's whom paired up into threes and formed his team set up. He told them all to explore the forest, take down as many as possible and bring the scrolls to them. The clones nodded, the vast armada flickering from the area.

Within moments, Naruto and his fellow members headed into the Tower after a lecture from Iruka about spamming techniques that may harm him, with Naruto shrugging. Meanwhile, a gang of Rain ninja groaned at how unfair it was that a team appeared, broke their Genjutsu, and then proceeded to take their scroll without mercy.

Orochimaru was screaming his head off in fury. So far he'd destroyed no less than two-hundred and forty clone duplicates of a team that looked like Team Seven. How was he supposed to mark Sasuke and fill him with an unquenchable need of more power and to seek him out? The world was just cruel sometimes... He ignored the idea of karma for torturing and killing millions. He was Orochimaru. He was Immortal. What need have he to possess a pesky thing of morals?

End Chapter Three

A/N: Hopefully a longer chapter then the second one. Studying is unkind to the brain. :/ What'd you think I should name the 'field' ability? By the way, I gave the sword that because let's be honest: All the cool legendary swords could do something to increase the user's skills, and Zabuza's just grows back. Pathetic. I think my idea suits the swords original design a bit better.


	4. Chapter 4

Eyes of Ice

Chapter Four: The Chunin Preliminaries, the Month of Training, and the Chunin Finals

Naruto's team rested for three days, enjoying the facilities of the Tower. Basic and rather Spartan in design, but it was better than needing to keep one eye open in a forest that could literally be their deaths. Naruto spent the first day resting and stocking back up the scroll he'd used for his mass jutsu.

The second day was spent with Naruto practicing the amount of time he needed to cast his Earth-Travel Genjutsu. He was able to shorten it immensely, from five minutes in being in one spot down to half a minute. Easily done with a Shadow Clone underground, he acknowledged, but it helped him if he ever got in a tight spot.

The final day was spent with Naruto reading through a couple of Scrolls he had on hand, one's that he'd 'permanently borrowed' from the library. They were mostly theory, but Naruto needed something to do without tipping anyone off, as most teams arrived by this point.

The fourth day came, and the teams filed in, with some teams from Konoha and Sound arriving last minute. The Hokage gave a grand speech about how they were fighting for their countries prosperity and how this is how allied countries do their battles. Truthfully, Naruto didn't pay much attention to the whole thing.

He knew they were essentially fighting like slaves in a mud pit for official's amusements in a month's time. Whatever farce or illusion tried to paint it otherwise was just a pathetic sham, nothing more.

The first ones to fight were Kin of the Sound versus Shikamaru of the Leaf. He watched with slight intrigue as Shikamaru slowly led his opponent to end up knocking herself out and earning him the win. If the fellow teen wasn't so lazy, he'd have once feared Shikamaru's prowess. As is, he would keep a few tabs on him just in case.

Next was the 'Fan girl' battle between Sakura and Ino. Ino clearly won through forcing her opponent to easily throw in the match. Naruto also didn't really care then either: Ino already highlighted that Sakura had no major willpower of her own.

The next match made Naruto grin slightly. It was now him versus Kiba. He'd make an excellent warm up. He jumped over the railing, and quickly landed on the ground. Kiba took that as a challenge, vaulting over the railing on the other side of the room. He also landed on his feet easily, stating to Akamaru that Naruto would be an easy win.

Naruto said nothing to the obvious jab, his eyes glinting coldly. He didn't often indulge himself for bloodlust sport but when he did...

He rewrote the book on what it meant to be a monster in an area.

Once the proctor announced the fight was to begin, Kiba immediately began his advanced Taijutsu attack. "Fang over Fang!"

Kiba and his puppy Akamaru formed blurs similar to tornadoes, weaving around one another to attack Naruto directly.

He didn't notice Naruto's stone face break apart into a chillingly wide smile, almost insanely wide at that. He summoned five Shadow Clones around the arena, and still stood there, as if welcoming the attack.

It landed against Naruto, but that ended with a small pop, indicating it was a Shadow Clone. Kiba halted with Akamaru next to him, both looking like duplicates due to the pre-requisite of the Human-Beast Clone Jutsu. The remaining Naruto's smirked at Kiba, goading him on.

The dup snarled and used Fang-over-Fang again; attacking each clone they could aim for. Once that was done, Kiba's attacks stopped, with him snarling. Naruto wasn't anywhere visible. What was going on with the Dobe? Did he forfeit?

The ground groaned slightly, before ripping apart into vast clouds of rubble and dust. Kiba and Akamaru snarled trying to block Shadow Clones within the dust cloud. They were able to pop a few, block a few attacks, but they were being weighed down. The lack of visibility wasn't helping much, and the dust from the rubble upheave meant they weren't able to smell Naruto out like they would've been able to.

Eventually, Kiba recognized the lack of Naruto's scent. That meant he wasn't around and his clones were gone. The dust was still settling though, and that left the two on edge.

A cold voice broke through the area. "Pathetic that you were unable to break a Genjutsu, when your teacher is a Genjutsu Mistress. Have you no respect? Look at what you did to your poor puppy."

Kiba's eyes widened in fear and horror, as the surroundings shifted instantly. Akamaru was whimpering, beaten with bruises all over the poor puppy's body. Beatings... that he had done. Guilt and disgust filled Kiba, but he knew who was really responsible. He glared at Naruto's calm form, the mask not hiding the obvious air of scathing arrogance.

"Naruto. You die here for this." Kiba snarled, launching himself with every piece of his body. Huge amounts of chakra that poured in his legs vaulted him forward, as he spread his hands out with his fingernails now similar to claws.

Naruto did nothing; right up until the boy was within a couple of inches. A Clone formed right next to Naruto, the Throat Cleaver held right where Kiba was about to land. Kiba's eyes widened in shock and horror, right before the blade's sharp edge connected with the boy's neck.

The ninja crowd stared, surprise and horror etched on their faces. The Inuzuka child had just started punching and kicking the poor puppy, growling in clear aggression even as the puppy yelped and whimpered in obvious confusion and submission out of fear. Then Kiba launched himself at Naruto who had made noises of clear disgust at the obvious brutality against a poor thing. Naruto took a kunai and sliced Kiba's head off with it, obviously upset at what Kiba had done and considered his life forfeit as punishment.

The proctor declared Naruto the winner, and that Akamaru would be taken for treatment. The puppy growled at the medic ninja trying to grab him, yelping and whimpering as it went to curl up besides Kiba's corpse. It seemed the puppy mourned its master, even as the master had beaten it to near death.

Naruto quietly went up to his spot, the mask hiding his cold smirk and even colder blue eyes. He'd suffer no loss, and it seemed his genjutsu through the ground into the entire crowd worked without a hitch. It was only ever effective for a few moments, but those few moments were just enough time to cover Kiba's head being cut by Throat Cleaver, as well as obvious notes of disgust against Kiba to cover his motive for the child's death. That's one potential threat down.

Kiba was a potential tracker, and he needed to ensure the youngling wouldn't have gained the skills to track him down if he ever decided to leave. Now without a male heir in the pack, Naruto could use his most powerful Genjutsu to write his will into the potential heiress of the pack. He knew the ways of the Inuzuka, having read entire books on each of the clans.

The next few preliminaries went without fail, although the Sound ninja failed entirely. Gaara proved to be an interesting combatant, wielding immense amounts of sand. Naruto was concerned, but the month he'd have to train should be more than enough to master wind and water nature to be useful against the foe.

Lee lost after a rather tedious fight between ultimate defenses against a speedy opponent. At least the sand-using ninja has enough brains for a secondary system, Naruto acknowledged.

Soon, they were dismissed for an entire month to train and prepare themselves for the final segment of the Chunin Exams. Naruto immediately left the area, not wanting to stick around. Cold as he acted, he didn't want to look at the corpse he'd created from a once-could've-been-friends-Kinda living human being.

He was surprised when a barking occurred. He turned around to see the puppy Akamaru fidgeting in front of him. He looked almost sad, pitiable. He whined and whimpered, as if trying for Naruto to do something for him. He frowned, a bit irritated. He couldn't speak dog. Luckily, the clan head Tsume, whose son he'd just murdered, walked to him before she glared at him.

Her eyes were puffy, red from crying. She looked ready to kill him, making him tense up, before her face smoothed out into her normal face. She was nothing if not a professional. She listened to Akamaru's whining before she said quietly, a mix of pain, sorrow, and anger in her tone.

"Akamaru wants you to kill him. He can't bring himself to starve to death, as his chakra network would make that process take months. He wants you to end his suffering."

Naruto jerked back slightly, feeling a mix of pride and pity for the puppy. He took no joy in killing its master, but he respected the puppy to have the guts and honor to ask for death rather than force it. Many shinobi didn't have the same mettle.

He placed a hand on Akamaru's head, scratching its ears slightly. He whispered quietly. "I hope you become happy, where ever you may go, little one." With that final statement, Naruto flooded the puppy with his chakra, willing it to shred puppy's brain.

Akamaru felt no pain as the brain was ripped apart within two seconds.

Letting go of the puppy's corpse, it fell to the ground, limp. Naruto shook slightly, struggling to get his bearings. This was almost what happened to Haku, what Haku wanted. He shuddered slightly, unable to stop that reaction from showing itself.

The clan head was still there, watching silently as Naruto struggled to get his bearings. She whispered quietly.

"I don't think I'll ever forgive you, for killing my precious little boy. I don't think you're a bad person either though."

With that mixed final statement, the clan head left to mourn in private. Naruto sighed softly, returning to his previous thought of going to train. Still, what should he do with the corpses? He couldn't leave them there. That would be the highest regard of disrespect.

He gathered Kiba's corpse and the puppy's corpse to a small little area in the arena. He had a couple of Shadow Clones dig up the grave and deposits the bodies. They buried the two, and placed a kunai headstone. It seemed appropriate to Naruto, to give Kiba a small send off. He may not have liked him, but a human's life was worth basic dignity in its own right.

Slight sobbing could be heard, muffled although it was, and Naruto turned toward it. Hinata was whimpering and crying softly where she sat, having apparently never left her seat. He quickly vaulted up the walls of the arena and landed next to her.

She recoiled slightly from him, before she whispered quietly. "Did you have to kill him?"

Naruto sighed quietly, before saying softly. "Yes. He was hurting his own puppy, which is a sign of an Inuzuka losing their minds to bestial instincts of a horrible nature. It's exceedingly rare, and often stopped before it goes that far, but it does happen. I was doing Kiba justice, killing him before he killed his puppy that he cherished. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

She hiccupped lightly, before nodding a little. She fidgeted before she said quietly, obviously bull-dozing through.

"You've changed, Naruto-kun. You're not as happy anymore."

Naruto blinked in surprise at Hinata before saying ruefully. "Truthfully, Hinata... I was never that happy. That was me trying to lie to myself that I was happy, that everything would be perfect. I became awake from the fact that anyone could die, that I nearly died because I was unwilling to see the truth. I needed to change, become better, or I might not live long."

She nodded hesitantly, before getting up and leaving quietly. Naruto nodded to himself, before he left for the training ground. Along the way, he'd been able to ask Kakashi for a few tips on how to start nature training with wind, and Kakashi gave the answers, while chuckling at Naruto's disgruntled expression from his previous answer, before he left to train with Sasuke for the month.

If he was his naive self, he'd have been complaining. Now? It didn't matter. He had theories to try out, abilities to learn and master. He didn't have time for a would-be mentor giving vague hints or instructions before watching with amusement as he flopped. Time was precious. Time was money.

He soon arrived at his training ground. He was rather peeved to see the training ground empty. It made him feel like he was halting his own progress, but he acknowledged his previous reasoning was sound in that he couldn't take the risk of dying from a stray kunai when he was busy absorbing information from his clones.

He quickly summoned another thousand clones. They split into two groups of five hundred, beginning on the work of mastering their two natures of water and wind. Naruto himself was over-seeing their progress, working on his Genjutsu Earth-Transfer timing. He wanted to shorten the time needed to make it work; as well as expand the time limit he had to hold them all under a Genjutsu.

This continued throughout the day, with plenty of progress being made. They had succeeded quickly, going from cutting leaves to splitting a lake down the middle with water-walking clones pressing their hands all across the water. The water nature worked well, going from sucking the water out of a leaf to gathering water around their hands from the nearby lake.

With the two steps completed, Naruto decided to up their training for him, by making his clones try and control the wind around their bodies, and for the clones of the water nature mastery to work on trying to grab water from the air around them.

Naruto himself upped his game, mastering his Earth-Transfer from a minute down to a few moments, and increased the time limit of vast connection of a thousand connected individuals, from a few moments to a couple of minutes. Naruto had to absorb another scroll of chakra to refill his reserves, after using it all up in order to master the Genjutsu.

He quickly dispelled the thousand he'd formed, and sat next to a nearby tree while he absorbed the information. He noted a white-haired figure leaving the scene quickly. A figure he hadn't seen beforehand. A potential spy. His stomach clenched slightly, and Naruto summoned another thirty clones to give chase. The thirty soon faded beneath the fields their swords granted and gave chase.

Jiriaya had been curious watching Naruto stand still among an army of Shadow Clones learning nature affinities. It had impressed him greatly that his godson had jumped so very high in skill and that also equally worried him. Naruto's increase in strength and ability was far too sudden to be normal.

What if he'd been hiding his abilities? What if he planned vengeance against Konoha? It wouldn't be beneath Jiraiya's thinking, especially since he himself would probably resent the village a great deal.

Either way, he needed to report to the Hokage just how powerful Naruto was becoming. Naruto's eyes, which were closing to deal with the vast backlash of information he presumed, suddenly looked right at him. Jiriaya cursed.

'Shit! He can see me! I need to leave before he recognizes me.'

Jiriaya left, going as fast as he could. He stopped going incredibly quickly after a few minutes, wincing at the aching in his legs. That much chakra into his legs was going to make him sore tomorrow. Jiriaya twitched, seeing a branch twitch on its own. Invisibility Jutsu wouldn't be enough against the gallant Jiriaya.

He quickly made a hand sign before blowing vast fireball at the spot. It burned the trees, a small popping sound indicating the death of a Shadow Clone. Suddenly, three of them formed right in front of Jiriaya, the masks hiding their expressions.

"Do we desist, Clone Four?"

"No. He has been spying upon us. He could be a potential traitor or perhaps from another village. I don't recognize a village named 'Oil', so perhaps it's a false headband. He must be eliminated. Design Eagle Five."

Jiraiya's worry and disturbance jumped dramatically. These clones were clearly trained exceedingly well, almost as if Naruto was a Hunter-Nin in training. Or perhaps a member of Root. He hoped not. He blocked the incoming fist of one clone, blinking at their speed. They were moving at least mid-Jonin.

He used his other hand to fling the clone into the one attacking from above, two simultaneous pops giving way. He turned and punched one in the stomach, making it pop. He twisted and kicked the one from below. Powerful and fast they were, still unable to match Jiriaya at even half his strength.

"Interesting. You were able to defeat hastily made clones filled with only enough to form themselves. How will you handle the original?"

Jiriaya twisted and jumped away, landing on a nearby tree. Naruto stood on the opposite tree, observing the fight. Jiriaya mentally cursed. Those clones were pretty strong, and he was certain Naruto himself was not any lower in skill.

Naruto was intrigued by the man's stances. His attacks favored powerful attacks designed to take down an enemy quickly. Case in point, his padded clones were defeated with single hits. He also noted the man clearly held a fire nature affinity. He deduced the man was either a traitor, or an ANBU sent to spy on his behaviors. Any shinobi entering this far into the village would not try and use a large jutsu like that.

It would send alarm bells ringing in the village to their presence.

He quickly took out the legendary Throat Cleaver, already attached to his back. Naruto smirked at Jiraiya's widening eyes at seeing the modified blade. The blade had been cut in half, in order to accommodate Naruto's current size. He'd melded the broken piece into the shorted blade, forming a tip in order to make it work as a smaller, much broader, katana of sorts. A fast solution, but it would work.

Naruto chuckled, entering his field ability. He quickly jumped onto the ground, noting how Jiraiya's eyes were darting at various moving objects. It clicked in his head, making him smile.

The man was able to detect invisible ninja through the moving objects around him. He'd been curious as to how his invisible clones had been found out.

A bit more difficult to go around, but certainly not impossible. Especially with the idea he had in mind. He made five hand seals, using the most basic Wind jutsu.

"Current of Winds: Thousand Welded Breeze."

Naruto had no fear of speaking aloud to an opponent of what he was going to do, because his field muffled sound to the point where it was below human hearing. Cost a bit more of his chakra, but he had that in spades.

A wave of his hand caused waves of air to distort making everything flutter around. Jiriaya scowled and stated. "Humph, as if that'll help. You're a thousand years too early to fight me, the great gallant Jiriaya! Swamp of the Underworld Jutsu."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly before he stumbled into a pool of mud. It engulfed his entire body. He felt trapped, and he had a few moments before he died from lack of oxygen. His ability from the sword he held didn't hold the ability to give him oxygen. Naruto focused intensely, grabbing a scroll he'd connected to a scroll at the bottom of the lake. It was a last ditch effort with an experimental seal, but it was better than dying.

'Fuinjutsu: Engulfment of the Water Thousand-Headed Dragon.'

Jiriaya was panting lightly. Hopefully the Kyubbi would keep his godson from drowning in the expanse of swamp he'd created. It was large enough to absorb the nearby trees, and the ground was now forty feet beneath mud that was chakra resistant.

He counted his eggs too early. The swamp he'd made exploded, as hundreds of gallons of water exploded outwardly. Dragon heads of water rose and shot randomly, destroying trees and plunging downwardly. Jiriaya had jumped high into the air, away from the event. He soon landed on a tree about forty meters away, eyes wide in shock and a little fear.

The kid had summoned an entire lakeful of water. Inside a muddy swamp that was resistant to most Jutsu.

Naruto burst onto the surface of a giant dragon's head, as it rose into the air; he coughed and gasped trying to inhale oxygen. He sputtered a bit before he back flipped off the dragon's head as it began to slam down randomly with its brethren.

He quickly shunshined over to the lake, watching as the water rippled quickly, as the water was being funneled into the scroll at the bottom of that-no-longer-muddy swamp. He placed his hand in the water, and detonated the scroll at the bottom with a detonation seal he'd designed into it. The ripples slowly stopped.

The water dragon heads stopped showing up, but Jiriaya remained wary. That type of Jutsu was at least A-rank, S-rank in power only. After a couple of minutes of silence, Jiriaya deemed it safe. Perhaps Naruto had used the Kyubbi's power to create that much water. Jinchurriki-augmented jutsu was always at least double their intended strength. He quickly fled, heading to inform the Hokage. Hopefully the Sandiame wouldn't be too furious with him.

Naruto panted lightly, still tired even after he extracted two scrolls worth of chakra. His scroll half-worked, being able to create dragon heads with natural water, but failed to seek out active enemies, just attacking randomly. Still, not too bad for a last ditch attempt by a Journeyman level sealer.

He called himself Jiriaya. Naruto only knew of one person called Jiriaya, and it made him feel somewhat proud to have faced off and survived against Jiriaya of the Sannin for any length of time. Still, Jiriaya would no doubt report his newfound strength to his only superior, the Hokage. He scowled deeply. He'd need to up his game, and quickly. That, and now he needed a new training ground location. This one was clearly found out.

Naruto straightened up, gathering his sword against his back. Once he was hidden under his field, He quickly left the scene.

The Sandiame puffed his pipe, breathing in and calming himself. The performance Naruto had given at the Chunin Exams had been amazing, showcasing his calm at seeing Kiba kicking and hitting his puppy, before quickly dealing with Kiba. He wasn't happy seeing Naruto kill but it would've been done anyway: All feral Inuzuka were put down, as being dangers to others and themselves.

Jiriaya arrived much later then he expected, and was off. He looked at Jiriaya, waiting for him to speak. He said firmly, to his Hokage.

"I was watching Naruto's progress. He was in the middle of his own chakra exercise it seemed, as the clones were working on controlling wind currents and the ones designated for water were trying to extract water from the air. Once he deemed them done for the day, he dispelled them. Only, he saw me as I left."

The Sandaime's eyes narrowed. The fact that Jiriaya was spying on his own godson was bad etiquette, but that Naruto detected Jiriaya meant that Naruto's Genjutsu-Dispelling method was enough to distort nearby chakra barriers, as Jiraiya's invisibility jutsu was a Ninjutsu.

Jiriaya continued speaking, reporting what occurred. "He caught up with me using five, perhaps six, invisible clones. I dispelled one with a fire style jutsu, and two appeared before me out of nowhere. I dispatched them, while destroying the one behind me, and destroying the one trying to catch me from below. Their speed was at least mid-Jonin."

The Sandaime's eyes widened significantly for a moment before deducing that Naruto's clones were using their chakra to increase their speed. A risky move, but clearly not enough.

"Naruto himself appeared behind me, somehow avoiding my natural chakra sensing capabilities. I jumped away, and he stated how the clone's I'd been fighting had only enough chakra to sustain themselves long enough to distract me. He then proceeded to show off a splintered version of the legendary Throat Cleaver, before vanishing."

The Sandiame was surprised, but only of the fact that Naruto became invisible. He knew of Throat Cleaver from the reports given, and was a little gleeful. It seemed Naruto unlocked a small portion of the sword's abilities. The Sandiame himself always doubted that the Throat Clever was so... normal. All the other swords offered abilities to enhance a user's attacking strategy. Zabuza was a master of the silent killing, so why give him such a large and obvious sword?

Unless that sword held advantages that would make Zabuza that much more deadly.

He motioned for Jiriaya to continue.

"He noted that I was able to detect invisible opponents through the nearby surfaces and used some basic jutsu to make everything begin to move, probably through Wind. I submerged him under a powerful Swamp of the Underworld Jutsu."

Jiriaya rushed forward, as the Sandiame looked furious, his eyes hardening. "He broke out of it with some massive water jutsu that kept shooting dragon heads at random for five minutes straight before they died down. The kid's powerful, I'll give you that old man, but it's a bit dangerous. We didn't exactly give him any warm thoughts about his home, especially after he found out about the Kyubbi."

The Sandiame frowned, a slightly guilty look surfacing. He hadn't meant to harm Naruto, but the road to hell was paved with good intentions. After taking another puff, he told Jiriaya calmly.

"I think what you did was foolish and stupid. If need be, I could've called forth his location from my crystal ball and see for myself. As is, do you really think we deserve the right to question Naruto? You haven't been there his entire life, not even to offer a warm hand of friendship at the very least. Not that I myself am not without fault, but I did my best. Jiriaya, I hope you can come up with a way for him to trust you, because I'm on thin ice as it is."

Jiraiya's face paled briefly before arguing. "You're the Hokage. Make him work with me."

The Sandaime's face hardened. "Jiriaya, just because I'm a dictator on paper doesn't mean that'll work out in my best interest. Work it out, or leave him be. Period. Dismissed."

Jiriaya left sufficiently cowed. He'd known he'd gone too far, but he had to at least attempt.

Naruto found himself on another training ground. Kurenai was practicing her Taijutsu, at least making the attempt to not rely on her Genjutsu for everything. His Genjutsu was at least effective enough to help her grow as a Shinobi. She immediately stopped once she saw Naruto, whom disabled his field.

She scowled at him. Her eyes flickered between fear and another emotion he couldn't detect. Naruto immediately knew.

She had returned to normal. Unsurprising for someone who's naturally resistant to Genjutsu.

She muttered darkly at him. "What did you do to me? I couldn't report you to the Hokage. I couldn't even try and hurt you. My body won't listen to me when I try."

Naruto nodded, a bit less wary. It seems his Genjutsu wasn't entirely broken. That would fade soon enough though. The reserves of his own chakra in her tissues would fade quickly.

"I cast a Genjutsu to reinforce loyalty and laced that with a series of counter-effects in case you broke it. It's surprising that you broke through the primary barrier, but it just means you are a lot more valuable, as a naturally Genjutsu resistant person. I could do the same thing again, but I value improvement over repetition. Tell me, how did you feel when you broke free?"

Kurenai shivered lightly. Naruto was almost like a scientist, poking her to see if her muscles twitched. Still, her mouth began to open, as if to speak, despite all of her desire to not speak at all.

"I felt... empty. I didn't like that my loyalty was force-fed, but the idea of you becoming a Genjutsu Master above all others still appeals to me greatly. I want Genjutsu to be more respected and feared. Everyone dismisses it in favor of Ninjutsu or Taijutsu because they physically shape the world and are more readily available. While I'm learning that Genjutsu can't hold on its own, I still want the art I'm devoting my life too, to get the respect it deserves."

Kurenai actually felt better when those words came out of her mouth. Despite her initial resistance, she found those words to be true to herself. That scared her... yet it also comforted her. At least Naruto was willing to learn, her mind fired back at her. He favors improvement, and clearly sees the value in her art. Shouldn't she be crowing with victory at that?

Kurenai hated it when her mind was right like that.

Naruto nodded, noting the fear leaving her eyes. Interesting. His experimental whispers into her subconscious seemed to be working, albeit only a little. Soon enough, he determined to himself, his chakra would be produced in her brain naturally. She'll be much less resistant to his experiments with Genjutsu under the guise of learning, and her natural resistance will falter once she becomes accepting of his chakra.

"I see. Excellent. My Genjutsu may have failed, but at least you remain logical enough to see reason. Still, your bitterness for those with naturally having larger reserves can easily be remedied. Try and cast Genjutsu at multiple people, with some consent in mind. I find that trying to control multiple targets either shortens to the time allowed for it before breaking that balance, or fails to work at all if not enough chakra is used. As a last resort, you could master your Fire affinity and practice using basic fire jutsu every day until your reserves grows to a pace you believe fit."

Naruto paused for a moment before saying calmly. "Do this enough, and maybe I'll teach you the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Having a duplicate that can help your Genjutsu manipulation should help just as well, and some brushing up on your Taijutsu should make you well-rounded enough on the field. Remember these words Kurenai: An over-specialized shinobi is a dead shinobi."

She nodded seriously, taking the advice to heart. She could meet up with Kakashi and a few others, since they still tried to stay in their prime. She wouldn't be like Gai, but enough Taijutsu and Ninjutsu training to equal that of an ex-ANBU captain should be sufficient enough. Plus, the prospects of a jutsu able to have a duplicate strong enough to cast Genjutsu had her salivating a bit. Elemental Clones were more designed for taking hits, and did not possess enough regular chakra to cast more then perhaps a basic Henge.

Naruto cloaked himself under his field, and left. Kurenai had given her reasoning, and he agreed that it was sound. Unfortunately, the training ground she used was far too open, and was the training ground for her team. He searched for a bit until he came upon a small pond with a waterfall nearby. There was a small cave there as well. Rather interesting, and he found the place suitable with no one around.

He stationed seven hundred clones around the perimeter, stationed as rocks, grass, insects, and such small things under their own fields. The use of their field barriers were very small compared to the chunk of chakra each held to sustain them.

Naruto summoned a thousand clones from his fourth scroll, lamenting that he'd need to spend the rest of the day recharging the four scrolls for later emergency use. The first set of five hundred was assigned to manipulate the breeze to carry a Genjutsu into the set of five hundred training in spars. The first to do so would dispel everyone, and Naruto would summon another thousand, and then improve on the process.

The day progressed rather slowly, but progress was made. Naruto could now cast small Genjutsu through the breeze of minor Wind jutsu, although the likely event of working if they dodged the attack remained unlikely. The one's sparing on the water were working on upping their control, simultaneously fighting each other with Naruto's unique Taijutsu mash-up and trying to gather water from the air around them.

There wasn't much success from that department, but Naruto's control did jump quickly after they dispelled. His four emergency scrolls were refilled, and Naruto recrafted the one-way Thousand Headed Dragon Twin Scrolls. He deposited one of the scrolls at the bottom of the pond just underneath the raging waterfall. This should strengthen his dragon heads a bit more, using the naturally pounding water's force to propel and harden the water to a consistency of concrete.

He was only lucky that he held a curiosity for Fuinjutsu after discovering the Shiki Fuin on his own at the age of four. After eight years of solid working and experimentation, Naruto was lucky to be alive and not have killed himself through failed seals. Of course, his naive self probably never even considered just how dangerous that hobby was.

He now wondered what he should do. Looking back on everything, he'd jumped swiftly from nearly nothing into something almost half-decent. He knew that he'd need to focus, that progress never should be stopped completely. There's no such thing as stopping because he considered his work finished. The work of a shinobi was only ever complete when either he retired with an amassed strength that the world wouldn't try and fight, or when he was dead.

Looking back on many famous ninja, many abilities and strengths seemed almost stronger the further back in time they went. That troubled him greatly. Were so much of the greatest strengths of the world beyond his reach, into obscure pasts he may never even know about? What did that say about the current system, being pale ghost of its greatest figures?

Naruto wasn't sure, but he did know that he'd found a new worthy goal that was very similar to his naive thinking, if a bit parallel.

He would become stronger than the previous Four Hokages combined, or die trying. He would show this world progress, true progress. Part of that would be to develop his own system to counter the current one, but he'd focus on that only when he became strong enough to protect that system. For now, he needed to survive long enough to prove them wrong.

He had an interesting idea. His Shadow Clones were duplicates, even duplicating the items he held down to a 'T', aside from scrolls filled with chakra: Chakra can't duplicate itself. If he could get his hands on enough paper bombs, his clones could become walking explosives. He'd just need something to protect him in case the clone exploded near him, or right next to him for that matter.

He needed something strong enough to propel away the heat, and sturdy enough to absorb the blast. Something likes the mirrors Haku used... Ice release. Naruto frowned, recognizing a problem. He'd need to find the right mixture of wind and water chakra to form Ice release. He did have an idea though.

There'd need to be more wind then water, in order for the wind to absorb the heat from the water, solidifying into ice. Ice is frozen water, heat removed until it became rigid. Time for some experimentation.

Naruto summoned a thousand clones, commanding them to practice using wind and water at different ratios to create Ice. Haku used the surrounding water to form his mirrors. Naruto wanted them to pour water chakra into the pond, lift it into the air, and try to cool the water with wind. The colder the water, the closer they'd be to a breakthrough.

The thousand nodded, and began to work on the idea. Since they mastered water release, they were able to easily make water orbs rise out of the pond, and the mastered wind release was able to spin around the water orb. The rest would be careful experimentation over time. Luckily, Naruto had time. Two weeks' worth before the exam.

It had taken a solid week, every day of over ten thousand clones, in order to find just the right ratio. Once that was done, Naruto had them practicing this ratio from large pools of water to the size of droplets. He wanted to master Ice release. Luckily, that took four days to do, as the ratio shifted sharply and required a bit more thinking, since they didn't have a natural bloodline to tap into the knowledge instinctively.

Naruto doubted they'd ever be able to use the Demonic Ice Mirrors Jutsu, as Haku had been able to melt into those mirror, and then use them to propel himself at four times his speed. It was a Bloodline Jutsu, something Naruto would have to take years with his Shadow Clones to form even a tenth of.

Luckily, he didn't need to. He didn't need to melt into his Ice Mirrors. He only needed the Ice Release to create a thick barrier or dome to block the explosive clones if they detonated. He could also use it to create an area of effect attack of large ice spikes and spires using his Ice release. Using his natural one-way Thousand Headed Dragon Twin Scroll, Naruto would never be too far from a natural water reservoir, especially since he'd go around and collect vast pools of water into scrolls for use later. He'd been inspired to do something similar to Gaara's Jug of Sand, only with scrolls instead.

A few days back, Jiriaya offered to let him sign the Toad Contract, but Naruto refused. He reasoned to the man that depending on his Toads to fight would weaken his overall independent strength, and would honestly rather find his own Summoning Scroll anyway. Toads would be obvious, and more front-line tank battling. Naruto preferred silent kills, and quick finishes. Fighting and barreling through enemies would leave him vastly open to counter-attack and wasn't his style of combat.

He then offered to tutor and mentor Naruto in what he was learning. Naruto again refused, pointing out that he shouldn't trust Jiriaya for spying on him to begin with, and pointed out that again, Naruto's style is exceedingly different from his own anyway. He then had the gall to offer Naruto the ability to cast the Rasengan.

Naruto stared at Jiriaya for a few moments, wondering at just how stupid he must've been, this desperate to teach Naruto something. He questioned why he was chosen, out of everyone he knew, to be able to learn the Yondaime's technique. Moreover, he'd studied description of the Rasengan from the many accounts of the Yondaime's greatness.

It was, he deadpanned to the man, a spinning ball of chakra designed for extreme close quarter's combat, that also left him wide open to attack unless he also utilized the Hirashin to be able to dodge such things, and Naruto didn't have the ability of the Hirashin.

Jiriaya then stated that the Rasengan itself was incomplete, lacking an elemental affinity. That had piqued Naruto's interest briefly, before Naruto again pointed out that didn't guarantee it wasn't an only-close-combat jutsu, and that didn't cover the gaping hole of needing a Hirashin Jutsu to dodge any incoming surprise attacks.

Jiriaya stated he could teach Naruto Fuinjutsu, that he was a Fuinjutsu Master. That had Naruto's attention, debated for a few minutes on whether that may be worth being taught. It was certainly better than simple experimentation, which was exceedingly dangerous, and Naruto did have a desire to learn Fuinjutsu anyway. Still, Fuinjutsu wasn't very well known.

He decided against it, and he explained why. Fuinjutsu seemed only ever viable in two situations. Explosive detonations and sealing away tailed beasts. The only ever time sealing was ever done in any other situation was to modify items to use Space-Time Jutsu. He doubted Jiriaya himself knew any Space-Time Fuinjutsu.

Jiriaya admitted the only one he knew was the Summoning Jutsu, which was Space use only, it didn't alter Time. Naruto nodded before bidding Jiriaya good day, firmly.

Truthfully, Naruto had his own ideas for Fuinjutsu, and he had no desire to let Jiriaya in on that any time soon. He'd noted the sealing scrolls were designed for items, and had the idea of using it to capture people, or jutsu. His scrolls were able to hold his chakra for refuel later. He wondered if it was possible with jutsu, but it would remain to be seen.

Naruto was enjoying himself, grinning. It was the day before the exam, and all of his goals had been complete. With the Ice Release down pat, and having large reserves of water to extract from no less than seven scrolls, Naruto felt prepared. He'd been able to form two of Haku's Jutsu.

The first was 'Ice Style: Thousand Needle Destroyer'. It was a modifier of the original ice needles Haku had called upon to try and stab Sasuke with. Instead of large needles able to be jumped over or dodged, the needles were much smaller, about the size of toothpicks. They were designed to form a menacing cloud of ice needles around Naruto, and swarm the enemy.

The vast cloud would surge forward, while smaller detachments would swerve to the sides, encasing the enemy. The trick was when the enemies blocked the attack. They'd drop their guards, where the ice needles held in reserve would surge from below, above, and behind.

The second was 'Ice Style: Demonic Thousand Spears of Death'. Based off of the Demonic Ice Mirrors, Naruto would summon Ice Blocks from chunks of water, and then create fast moving spears to fire at the enemy. Once hitting something or someone, the spears would shatter into ice fragments, reforming into much smaller spears that fractured even further. Naruto's spears were enhanced with his dense chakra, designed to absorb the water from the blood, or surroundings, to explode by fracturing.

Naruto also formed two other jutsu. The first was 'Ice Style: Armor of the Icy Tomb'. In honor of Haku's strength of devotion to Zabuza, Naruto named it such because the armor would form around his body, encasing it in really thick ice designed to take the massive explosive damage from his finishing 'Shadow Clone Mass Suicide Bomb Jutsu', although Naruto could still maneuver around and strike enemies apart with icy weaponry to use in his armor.

The second was a follow-through on the first. 'Ice Style: Army of Ice Statues'. Unoriginal and obvious naming, but effective. Naruto would encase five or six Shadow Clones in the thick armor to be used as much stronger attack forces, and would be able to hold up against a lot more damage. Once the clone was destroyed, the remaining ice would be able to be reused as Ice Mirrors or Spears.

Naruto was still capable of summoning Mirrors, but they'd be more useful in trapping an enemy inside boxes of immense Ice, a defense against Gaara's sand, if all else failed.

This wasn't to say he didn't learn wind or water jutsu, but focused primarily on the more defensive-offensive versatile Ice Style. He learned one of each, both useful in the upcoming fights. Voiding Winds was his Wind jutsu, which created swirling vortexes of wind designed to whisk Fire attacks away from himself or his Ice Style if they were deemed dangerous enough.

Water Style: Mass Water formation was his water style. It was extremely basic, one any water Style user would know. It was designed to use chakra to allow the user to create water in their mouth. It was a precursor to the Water Style: water Bullet, and much easier to use. Naruto learned it so he could use his clones to 'spit' out vast floods of water and flood the area for use.

Truthfully, Naruto disliked learning the Ninjutsu. He wanted to be a Genjutsu User, but he had to admit having such backups would be vital, especially against Gaara, whom may be the jinchurriki, if anything by his use of sand and the automatic defense ability he held.

With only one day left, Naruto was preparing. He had everything set up, with backups if necessary. He also had nine scrolls to draw from for chakra, with Ice Style being a bit more draining then the other two styles he knew about. He also had the usual amount of paper bombs: Fifty. With his clone's duplication, that would be a terrifying thing to behold, let alone defend against.

Deeming himself ready, Naruto rested over the night, his eyes shutting.

Morning came abruptly for the Uzumaki, opening his eyes to a horrible sun that dared to peak into his retinas. Scowling at the sun's insolence for ruining his morning already, he quickly set off to the Chunin Exams final, which was at an arena often glorified for such events. Hiding under his field to avoid the civilians and any potential enemy shinobi trying to do him in before he even entered the exams, he left to the arena.

Once there, he swiftly shut it off in a corner of the room, making sure no one noted his invisibility. He soon waited near the front of the exam seats, ignoring the ANBU in the room. They were silent, as always, but Naruto was still wary: They seemed to be eyeing the ninja more than anyone else, but only the Konoha ninja if he detected their small head movements correctly. Odd, but perhaps to avoid an incident.

Once the Chunin exam final doors closed, the proctor was different, being a brown haired person rather than the bandaged one who kept coughing. He declared the exams to begin, with the opponents being Neji Hyugga versus Naruto himself.

He descended down into the area, once again vaulting over the walls then taking the long way. The prospect of being ambushed for those who wanted their bets a sure thing would be too high. Although Naruto had betted on himself against Neji, Sasuke, and Gaara. He'd win huge, as he'd prepared extensively.

Naruto ignored Neji's rambling about fate and losers. Personally, he found Neji both boring and stupid. They were shinobi, not philosophizes. Sides, 'Fate' could go fuck her. Or Himself, he didn't care which.

Once the proctor said Fight, the battle began. With a talking spew about fate and giving up as losers always will lose. Naruto actually stared at the kid, dumbfounded. Shouldn't he be fighting, or just doing something other than standing there, preaching to the wind? Fucking moron, he cursed inwardly. He wanted a good fight, and he got himself a moron instead. Bah, let's end it quickly, he thought glumly.

He removed his hands from his sleeves discretely into the inside of his jacket, forming his signature seal for the Shadow Clones. Clones began forming underground, popping themselves silently afterwards until a clone formed directly behind Neji's position, who was still rambling without his Byakugan even activated.

A flick of a silent senbon, and Neji fell to the ground unmoving. Naruto dispelled the Clone, telling the proctor the Hyugga was in a death-like state. The proctor stated that Naruto won the match. Naruto smirked under the mask at the many groans from the civilians and a good portion of the shinobi. He'd won huge for this match.

Reappearing on the stands, Naruto watched the matches with interest. Shino won against Kankuro, using his bugs to eat away at the chakra strings along with a female beetle to be used as a tracking devise. Naruto felt a bit disturbed and worried on this, but simple Ice Armor would defend him against such tracking devices.

Temari won after Shikamuru forfeited due to sheer laziness. Naruto remained unsurprised by these events.

Yet, the Uchiha didn't show during his match. Naruto frowned, cursing Kakashi's lateness. He wanted to see Sasuke's improvement, but fighting Gaara would do. He gave the proctor a request to the Hokage to fight as an intermission since Sasuke was being held up most likely by his eternally late sensei Kakashi.

The Sandiame accepted this proposal, with the proctor telling Naruto and the crowd that Naruto would be versing Gaara, and Sasuke's would be shifted to whoever won this match, by Naruto's request. The crowd's general reaction was along the lines of 'We want to see a fight, so we don't give a damn.'

Naruto stood before Gaara, silent as ever. Gaara became off quickly, shouting to Naruto about how "Mother wants your blood, Uzumaki Naruto. Feed her greatly, you will!"

The proctor, unnerved, began the fight. Immediately, gushes of sound flooded forward toward Naruto. Naruto remained, still, sliding one scroll out of his hands. He swiftly opened it, throwing it into the air.

It glowed dark blue, and floods of water occurred, covering the area immediately. Naruto made a flurry of hand signs before intoning mentally.

'Ice Style: Encased Dome'. The water approaching Naruto curved around him, encased into a thick layer of ice, even as the water seeping into the ground became frozen solid underneath Naruto as well. He wasn't taking chances from an attack from below.

The entire area became flooded with water, changing the landscape into a lake filled up to the middle of the walls in height, leaving only the tips of the trees visible. Naruto saw Gaara, encased no doubt in a ball of sand from his ultimate defense. His sand would be protected from turning into mud through density alone, which wasn't surprising.

He began making a few hand signs before placed one hand against the ice dome wall.

'Ice Style: Thousand Demonic Spears'.

Spears of ice shot forward out of the dome, hardening by the surrounding water freezing in place through contact.

They shattered upon contact with the dome, indicating the density of the dome of sand. They shattered further, before freezing into a congealed icy layer on top of the dense sand layer. Naruto's eyes narrowed behind the mask before nodding. Clearly Gaara was up to something, as the shinobi was clearly able to lift his sand into the air.

After forming two Shadow Clones, whom nodded in understanding at the plan while grinning behind their perspective masks. After making quite a few hand seals, all three of them placed their hands against the dome, all of them speaking aloud in unison.

"Ice Style: Army of the Icy Statues."

The Dome began exploding with bulges of ice forming. The ice shifted into duplicates of Naruto, each incased with a Shadow Clone within. Naruto began panting after twenty of them formed, and stopped before he put himself into Chakra Shock.

The twenty solid ice statues blurred forward, surrounding Gaara's Dome. With no activity to indicate an attack from the heavy sand, the Shadow Clones began infusing their chakra constructs into the fifty paper bombs attached to their pouches inside their duplicate cloaks.

They attached themselves to the dome, grinning at the success of their armor as weakened sand tendrils tried to spear them ineffectively.

'Shadow Clone Mass Suicide Bomb Jutsu!'

The result was glorious.

The water exploded violently, ripped apart by the force of 1000 paper bombs, with ice fragments shredding everything.

The sand dome was ripped apart like play dough, the surrounding explosions all around shredding the entire thing apart, where the area was bathed in intense heat. Gaara's scream of agony was heard, and then water rushed back in immediately after the explosion. His scream was cut off, and lots of blood pooled out from his obvious wounds, turning the water red.

Naruto scowled as he began seeing immense sand being ripped from the ground. Gaara was trying to use Shukaku to defend himself. Not likely. Quickly absorbing a scrolls worth of chakra, Naruto blurred forward, merging the ice dome layer in front of him into his armor. He couldn't allow the Jinchurriki to gain the Bijuu state. That'd endanger Konoha, and he couldn't afford his cover blown just yet.

Blurring through the water, Naruto bulldozed through the sand effortlessly, which was weighed down by the water. He grabbed Gaara, whom was struggling to move away from Naruto. Naruto chuckled darkly at the redhead in his arms, encasing him in his Ice Style.

Soon, Naruto became incased in a much larger dome of ice, blocking the sand from trying to reach Gaara. Gaara snarled at the Uzumaki, unable to move as his entire body was incased in the ice. Looking him over, Naruto noted that Gaara was impressive in his defense capabilities. Despite being hit with the amount of explosives, his secondary armor protected him from the heat and the majority of the blast. He did have chunks of his arms and legs ripped off, indicating he was in a fetal position which luckily, or unluckily, saved his life.

Naruto said flatly. "Submit, and tame your beast, number One. I can kill you here and now with my Thousand Ice Spears. Sides, I'm Number Nine."

Gaara's eyes widened in shock, before he slowly calmed down. He clearly submitted to the better ninja.

Naruto nodded, and placed his hand on the wall of the dome. 'Ice Style: Rise of the Flower.'

The ice beneath their feet hardened and began to push the dome upwards. Once it breached the surface, revealing the Ice Style's glory, the dome cracked and shattered carefully, and wrenching open like a metal flower in bloom.

Gaara said clearly, monotone. "I forfeit. I clearly lost against Uzumaki Naruto, as was expected."

The two walked over to the railing, with Gaara using his remaining chakra to form a sand platform over his footsteps, and Naruto walking on the ice platform he created through his feet. Gaara was taken to the medical facility for heling, although he nodded to Naruto in respect. Gaara may have been a monster, but he was a monster who just understood he was a small fish in a large pond.

Naruto placed his hands into the water's surface, focusing. The water shuddered, rippling. With a huge sucking sound, all the water was sucked into the scroll that had drifted to the bottom. The ice structures shattered into pieces, while one of his Shadow Clones that had stayed behind collected it and brought it to Naruto before dispelling.

The crowd had gone silent. The pariah of Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki, had beaten both Gaara of the Sand and Neji Hyugga. The idea of the pariah becoming this strong was unnerving, unsettling, and every other vocabulary that equaled them all being awed and terrified.

Suddenly, Kakashi and Sasuke appeared in the middle of the field. The proctor yelled at them. "You imbeciles are late! Luckily, the Sandiame granted the request to have your match postponed with the winner of the last one. Gaara lost; therefor you'll be versing Uzumaki Naruto. Kakashi, get off the stage before I Thousand-Years-Of-Death your ass."

Kakashi sweat dropped and mumbled quietly about not being respected anymore, before Shunshining away. Sasuke scowled, before grunting as usual. Sometimes Naruto wondered if his team mate was going the opposite of Evolution in speech patterns.

He vaulted down again, landing silently on his feet. The proctor quickly yelled for them to fight and left. Sasuke, never one to stand and wait, shot forward at Naruto. Naruto chuckled at Sasuke, quickly forming five Clones.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan as the Clones rushed at him; he was surprised at the speed of Sasuke's movements: Near his own speed without chakra added. He watched as Sasuke dispelled all five with ease. He quickly whipped out a scroll, throwing it at Sasuke while yelling jokingly.

"Think fast, Sasuke-san!"

Sasuke's face turned toward the scroll, his Sharingan widening in alarm as the scroll began to unfurl with a flood of water coming out in the form of multiple Dragon Heads. He quickly began dodging, as many dragon heads of water began hitting the ground which actually cracked apart from its falling speed and pressure.

After ten of them, the scroll exploded in a ball of fire. Sasuke panted lightly, before his Sharingan widened in alarm: Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto chuckled mentally under his field ability. Clearly Kakashi hadn't expected Sasuke to verse Naruto, otherwise he might have told him about this little trick. He never even left his spot, but Sasuke's mind will assume he did in order to avoid being seen.

Naruto quickly began making hand signs under his field. He did this not to hide from Sasuke, but to avoid Sasuke trying to copy his jutsu.

'Ice Style: Prison Bind.'

Sasuke cried out in shock as the water that had fallen to the ground suddenly surrounded him and froze solid. He was unable to move aside from his head. His Sharingan couldn't even detect it!

Naruto sealed away the sword, now standing in front of Sasuke, his mask hiding his expression.

"Submit, Sasuke-san. If not, I will begin spearing you slowly with the ice encasing your body."

Sasuke's face darkened, his Sharingan spinning wildly. Naruto chuckled darkly, as a small pop from a clone destroyed the Genjutsu.

"I have a method for destroying Genjutsu, so that was an obvious bust. What next, Sasuke-san? What else is up your sleeve?"

Sasuke smirked, and the ice encasing him suddenly shattered to pieces, revealing his hand had clenched around the other forearm, and a ball of lightning chakra in his other palm, and tried to ram into Naruto with it.

Naruto had enough. Pouring chakra into his limbs, he blurred to the side, grabbing the Uchiha's wrist that had missed plunging the assassination jutsu into his chest. Naruto hissed out sharply.

"Wrong move."

He grabbed the Uchiha's other hand to keep it from trying to punch him, and squeezed both wrists tightly until they cracked audibly from the bones breaking. Sasuke howled in agony, trying to get out of Naruto's grip. Naruto released his wrists, as a Shadow Clone formed from behind, plunging several needles along the Uchiha's back.

"The arm and leg bones are special in that they need the bones collectively to function without harm. By breaking your wrists, I ensure you cannot use Jutsu normally. The senbon I placed on specific spots along your spine halts you from moving your limbs and neck, paralyzing you in position. You tried to stab me with an A-rank ninjutsu. Therefore, I know your punishment, Uchiha Sasuke. Do it."

The Clone nodded, and placed both hands on the Uchiha's back. Within seconds Sasuke began twitching as pain flooded his brain. Yet he was unable to speak, unable to scream in pain, and unable to forfeit from his punishment.

Naruto watched with apathy as the Sharingan spun wildly, no doubt trying to break the Genjutsu causing the agony. Naruto had created this to counter the Doujutsu's natural ability to break genjutsu. A Doujutsu User can't see his own chakra, in order to prevent blinding himself. By flooding the Uchiha's tissues, specifically the spinal cord that leads into the brain that connects to the optical nerve to the Sharingan, Naruto was essentially hiding his Genjutsu from the Uchiha's sight.

The only way to break the Genjutsu was through the team mate disrupting and expelling the chakra.

Sasuke's Sharingan spun faster and faster, the desperation clear inside the crimson orbs. Naruto halted the clone, disrupting the Genjutsu. The Sharingan stopped spinning.

Naruto hissed into the Uchiha's ear quietly. "I just gave you the feeling of electricity coursing through your chest and back. That was the pain you were trying to cause. Next time you try and use that jutsu on me, and I won't make you feel the pain. I'll stab your eyes out and leave you paralyzed and blind, to die a slow death. Now, when I release your head, you will submit... Or we continue this little dance, you and I, until you become insane. I may be an ally, but don't assume I'm a pushover."

After withdrawing from being next to the Uchiha's ear, the Clone removed the senbon from his neck, making Sasuke gasp weakly. He said weakly. "I-I submit."

The proctor nodded, surprised and intrigued. He considered the Uchiha lucky. Naruto had spared the Uchiha, without ripping his eyes out. If a team mate tried that on him... Well, the said team mate would be missing all of their limbs.

"The Winner of the Chunin Exams is Uzumaki Naruto. Per the Rules of Engagement, Naruto is automatically granted Chunin status."

Everything exploded into action. Feathers covered the area, and Naruto's dispelling method showed this was a Genjutsu, after one of his clone-kunai popped.

Sand and Sound Ninja were pouring into the area, fighting and attacking the Konoha ninja. The three sand shinobi siblings were missing.

Immediately, Naruto connected the dots.

War had begun.

While the rest of the Genin became paralyzed or began leaving to help evacuate civilians, Naruto stood still.

Smiling widely with the joy of having some fun, and yet...

His eyes were blue, and sharp. The Eyes of Ice.

End Chapter Four


	5. Chapter 5

Eyes of Ice

Chapter Five: Ice of Heart, Death of a Leader, Mark of Betrayal

Naruto chuckled darkly, throwing four scrolls high into the air. He may not know what was going on, but striking Konoha meant the Sound and Sand were fair game for experimental Jutsu for free human testing. Perhaps he could even keep a couple of dozen for testing and interrogation.

He knew that he should be trying to stop Gaara from unleashing Shukaku on Konoha, but why should he bother? Jiriaya of the Sannin would take care of that easily enough, as the Shukaku is the only tailed beast able to be imprisoned into a sealing object, showing just how weak it really was.

The four scrolls exploded outwardly, as the preset Jutsu went into effect. One hundred Ice-Armored Naruto Clones landed on their feet, forming swords out of the ice near their wrists and detaching them to grip them in their unique Taijutsu Style. Naruto commanded coldly.

"Kill any wearing the Sound and Sand headband. If you can, seal them away into the beta Human-Sealing Scroll. Kill any that resist. You know what must be done."

The clones nodded before they vanished under their individual sword's fields. Naruto had modified the sword on his back not just for his height, but to account for the ice armor's inability to extend any further than a couple of feet above the skin. Naruto nodded to him before fading under his own invisible field, after having another Ice-Armored Clone grab Sasuke's paralyzed body and taking him away from the battle sight.

Naruto vaulted up the walls of the arena, sighting his own targets. He took out a couple of kunai, filling them with Ice chakra, and flung them. Two of the traitor ANBU's that had been busy fighting four of the Jonin in Konoha, never noticed the kunai being flung from their blind spots, and sunk to the handle in their necks. They fell dead, and the Jonin blinked and shock before moving on to help their comrades.

Unbeknownst to the Jonin, Naruto crept in and sealed the bodies. Their armor would make excellent additions, and they held swords that had clearly been enhanced with chakra metal. The two ANBU's had been using wind chakra inside their blades, as they'd been slicing the kunai the four Jonin had been using.

With those two ANBU's finished, Naruto could see the Konoha ninja were gaining the upper hand, especially as he'd noticed Gai and Kakashi arriving in the scene. He nodded to himself. Time to move on from this area and try and kill a few more of them elsewhere.

He shunshined over to a nearby rooftop, and was surprised to see a barrier formed around the rooftop the Kage's had jumped toward. Something was going on, and Naruto wanted in on the information.

Once he arrived at the area, he soon saw fellow ANBU just standing there, as if unable to crack the barrier. One of them flung a kunai filled with lightning chakra, if anything by the static electricity on the metal was to go by, and the barrier burnt the metal into goop. He saw four Sound Ninja on the inside, surrounded by a barrier of their own that they clearly made.

Naruto became clearly annoyed. There wasn't any barrier from below that he could tell, but he wanted part of the action within. The forest was clearly man-made, which meant someone was a Mokuten User, and was fighting inside. Naruto debated trying to open the barrier by killing the Sound Ninja from the inside, before Naruto's grin appeared, and his eyes began to flicker with an idea.

He focused his chakra, collecting it, and pushed it through the ground.

The Sound Four were clearly smug. Their barrier was unable to be stopped, and was holding the ANBU at bay. No living human being or Jutsu could get through, and their master would reward them once the Sandiame was dead, and Konoha burned to the ground.

There was just one problem. It could be nothing major, but they were beginning to feel cold. As if a hand of death was clutching their hearts, and was beginning to squeeze the life-giving organs slowly, tightly, but firmly. Cold cackling began filling the air and they were certain something was turning horribly, horribly, wrong.

A whisper began to echo inside their minds, whispering doubts into them. Their barrier was not infallible. They had no barrier inside the ground, so all it would take was someone smart enough to use Earth Ninjutsu to shred their bodies apart.

The Sound Four ignored it, believing the Konoha ninja were too stupid to notice that flaw, and the voice agreed. Yes, Konoha weren't that intelligent, too true. Still, who said anything about being rewarded for helping? They were mere slaves, bound by the need to live, and the need for the false power of their curse seals, which was a drug.

They ignored that too, although Tayuya began to growl curses at the voice. The voice chuckled again coldly, asking a very pointed question.

Where were Kin and the Sound team members? Where were they, when they should've joined you in the barrier, to help sustain your barrier with their chakra? Orochimaru has no need for failures or wasted tools. What if, once you complete your goal, Orochimaru uses you for experiments? It wouldn't be the first, as you've known failed experiments that used to be your friends. You remember their haunting screams, the pleads for help turning into pleads to die. That could be you, you know.

The Sound Four faltered briefly, and the voice capitalized on that.

You are mere slaves, bound to a master who uses those he can and throws them away whenever he finds a shinier tool. What if he gets the Uchiha, why would he ever need you four again? He has the Kaguya, why need you at all except for the barrier that requires exactly four people? Why not turn the master into your slave? End the barrier, and let your master die. If you have no master, your curse seals will no longer hurt you.

Do you desire freedom and power? Do you want to be your own masters, and still possess power? End the barrier. Become who you were born to be! Rulers! Conquerors! Masters of your own making!

The Sound Four grinned, their eyes lighting up. Yes, it was their time to rule! They stood up, and shut off the barrier.

The barrier collapsed, even as Orochimaru yelled at them to grab him and escape. Orochimaru would never realize that the Sound Four never heard him.

They had been killed by Senbon to the necks, and sealed away by Naruto after the ANBU had plunged into the forest. The ANBU would never find Orochimaru, as he'd escaped the scene with a snarl of anger.

Naruto had noticed Orochimaru leaving the scene by regurgitating a large Snake head covered in thousands of snakes. Naruto had nearly retched, but had been quick to leave a couple Shadow Clones as small beetles on the moving reptile-more-then-man-now shinobi. Keeping tabs on Orochimaru would be beneficial.

Naruto had also taken the Sandaime's armor off, and replaced it with a Kage Bunshin duplicates. No one would ever notice, until after the burial of the body.

Naruto crowed with delight as he left the scene. His Genjutsu 'Voices of Doubt' had been a complete success. It used the centers of the brain that held fear and anger, and connected that with the center of memory. This way Naruto could use the information of their own minds against them, and guide them to an action he desired. The fools could've easily broken the Genjutsu, but they couldn't do that without disrupting their own chakra, and, thus, the barrier.

A win-win for Naruto's books. Add in that he had a series of armors to mix and match for his own armor and a flute that was clearly designed for Genjutsu similar to Kin's bells, and Naruto was a very, very, happy person.

Did he mention he now had a battle-made flute designed for Genjutsu use? He was ecstatic.

Once he arrived at the gate of Konoha, he waited calmly. This was the spot all of the clones would assemble to. Sure enough, eighty of those hundred appeared. They handed Naruto twenty of the scrolls, filled by the Sound and Sand ninja whom had panicked, and stated that many of them were from an outpouring section of the wood wall being destroyed by a large Summoning Snake that was taken care of shortly by Jiriaya.

Naruto nodded and asked where the other twenty clones were. They stated that the twenty were busy running after the Cloud Ninja that had grabbed Hinata during the beginning of the assault. Naruto nodded before commanding them to go after the jinchurriki of the Sand and to stop him from becoming a full-tailed beast. Should that happen, he warned them, Konoha may end up being swamped by sand, which would only cause a full-fledged war by the other villages to capitalize on the weakness.

A War that they were neither prepared for or desired at the moment of their planning.

The Clones nodded before vanishing again under their fields. Naruto stopped thirty of them, before giving them a different set of orders. Find Shino Aburame's and Shikamaru Nara, and kill them discretely. Both the ice armor and the field cost a good twenty percent of the reserves to maintain, but the benefits vastly outweighed the risks.

Naruto nodded to himself. 'I will not allow Cloud to get their hands on the Byakugan. If Hinata dies, then I'll seal the body to get the Byakugan implanted by a clone when I leave Konoha.'

Jiriaya was out of his depth. The Sand kid turned out to be a Jinchurriki and was cackling madly while forming huge sections of sand out of the ground beneath him. He'd evaded them so far, but the insane shinobi had been more than careful this time, as Naruto had shown his weaknesses. He never gave Jiriaya enough time to summon any of his Toads, and he didn't have anything stronger than the basic Water Style: Water Bullet.

He cursed, back flipping of the wave of sand that tried to strike again from above. He twisted to the right and jumped away as spear of sand formed out of the ground. He wasn't able to do much else, as his Taijutsu favored power over speed, and he'd be cut down the middle the moment he went close to the Sand Jinchurriki.

He wondered briefly if his godson might help, but dismissed the thought. Naruto didn't know that Gaara was going to strike. No one did, and that terrified Jiriaya a great deal more.

The sand movement stilled, and Jiraiya's eyes widened in horror as Gaara slumped over, unconscious. Except, Shukaku never formed. After a minute or two of nothing happened, and watching carefully, he quickly ran over and studied the kid.

A seal had been hastily slapped onto the Jinchurriki back. The sand's defense had been nullified somehow, and Jiriaya was both irritated and overjoyed at that. The seal was a suppression seal, clearly, but had been modified to be attached by a kunai. Someone clearly didn't want to be seen by Jiriaya, and the fact that this unknown person helped at all bothered Jiriaya immensely.

His eyes widened with shock and terror. This had been a diversion, and that single thought drove Jiriaya to flee back to Konoha as fast as possible.

An ice-armored Naruto Clone slowly reappeared, scowling down at the Jinchurriki of Sand. Most of his brethren had been slaughtered by the fast moving sand, and it had taken the rest of them to pool enough chakra into his particular armor to make it strong enough to bypass the barrier of sand plus that of the sand trying to stab him to 'death'. He quickly wrote out a note to the Jinchurriki, before placing it inside the Jinchurriki jacket. Its job complete, the clone popped.

The ANBU of Cloud was not happy. They had grabbed the girl carrying the Byakugan, and had even grabbed the sister before leaving. One of the Hyugga elders had followed them, but had been swiftly stopped by a lightning attack. The Hyugga's weaknesses were well documented that they focused only on Taijutsu.

That being said, they had been mobbed by invisible ninja using Ice Jutsu. The fact that the Mist shinobi were now getting into the action disturbed them. The invisible ninja were also dying though, as they knew lightning jutsu destroyed Ice Style easily. Despite that advantage, only two of the Cloud ANBU had survived, the rest being ripped apart by ice spears and senbon that had bypassed the lighting armor coating their usual armor.

Naruto was furious at the two shinobi before him. They had the gall to destroy his clones, to even easily break through his Ice jutsu. The amount of chakra poured into those clones had been immense, and the fact that they'd been torn apart absolutely pissed him off.

At least they had the dignity of showing his weakness of his Ice Style for him, but Naruto was still furious with them. He poured his wind chakra into his Throat Cleaver, before slashing it.

The ANBU had been shocked to see Naruto form right in front of them, using what was clearly the legendary Throat Cleaver. Of course, they'd quickly mentally laughed it off. The Throat Cleaver was well known to be the weakest of the Seven Swords, as all it did was reform when blood dripped into the broken blade.

That was until the blade had suddenly formed a missile of chakra that decapitated his fellow ANBU. The ANBU suddenly hardened sharply. He knew his orders.

'If you should ever be outmatched, and the Hyugga are unable to captured and taken, kill them to lessen Konoha's strength.'

He flung two lightning-chakra covered kunai, not at Naruto, but straight at the two Hyugga children. That was the last sight he saw as his head was sliced off.

Naruto could see the kunai heading toward the two Hyugga girls, and he knew he had to make a choice, and quickly. After a quick half second of thought, Naruto blew his Wind: Void of Winds at the closest kunai.

The kunai swerved and hit the tree just above the younger Hyugga girl. The sound of a flesh being ripped apart met Naruto's ears, and he closed his eyes sharply. He'd known he'd made the right choice. Hinata was kind, and was not meant to be a Shinobi. The Hyugga had planned for her to become a Branch member as he'd read the Council's notes back when he studied them under his sword's field. Now, at least Hinata would be free in death, as she wouldn't have been in life.

He opened his eyes and turned toward her, noting that she looked asleep, even as her forehead had been stabbed to the hilt. He quickly walked up to her, breathing slowly as he took a container out of his pocket. It was filled with preservative liquid, and Naruto took his anatomy skills to work as he removed the eyes and placed them inside the small jar. He sealed it tightly, and took two kunai before plunging them into the empty sockets.

This way the Hyugga would believe that Kumo had stabbed out Hinata's eyes in failure of their mission's objective, and fled quickly. The kunai above Hanabi's head was to show that their last minute execution of Hanabi had failed. He sealed away the Kumo ANBU for their armor and study later. With no body, Konoha couldn't rightfully start any war with Kumo, even with a dead genin. As it was the clan heiress that was well known as a weakling, most Hyugga wouldn't care.

To them, Hinata was already dead as she was useless. This would just make things official.

Naruto nodded to himself as two other Ice covered Clones appeared, handing him scrolls that bore the bodies of Shino and Shikamaru. The rest had been destroyed by Shino, whom had apparently kept a large reserves of insects hidden even in the Chunin Exams. The death of the host Aburame's, they stated with slight awe in their reports, had sent the insects into a frenzy descending and absorbing as much chakra and energy as possible. The surrounding Sound and Sand shinobi had been eaten alive by the voracious insects; although Shikamaru had been smart enough to evade the insects in time. Luckily, there had been a clone nearby to kill the Nara with a senbon.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, as information entered his mind.

An ice covered Naruto clone stood there, guarding the Uchiha at the edge of a nearby forest. This was away from any battle, it reasoned, and was viable. After a while, it studied the Uchiha's unconscious form, making sure it's senbon holding him in place still held. He'd knocked him out after he wanted to go out there and fight. The Uchiha was clearly weakened by the Genjutsu and by senbon, so he'd be a liability, not an asset.

The Uchiha refused, even trying to use Genjutsu on the Clone. That failed as the clone broke through it with the small reserves it held. Now without a lot of chakra, the Clone had snarled and knocked the annoyance out.

The somewhat tense peace ended sharply when Orochimaru's snakelike form had appeared out of nowhere, babbling about a curse mark for his new body. The Clone tried to stop the Sannin, but was ensnared in a vast purple place of some sort, along with the Uchiha.

Orochimaru was in his human form, and began babbling about how this was a dimension, and that he'd kill the Kyubbi brat and take Sasuke's body at the same time. The Clone had snorted in disbelief of the clearly-now-insane Sannin's audacity. A whole dimension? Yeah, sure, and while they were on an idea of impossible things, and he was clearly the son of the Yondaime's destined to bring peace to the world by talking to all the villains into peace.

The Clone had no time for this nonsense. It was clearly a Genjutsu, and he was tired of dealing with an insane, rambling, madman. He removed the ice containing the last dregs of his chakra, and swiftly ripped apart the place by enforcing his will for the place to turn into a frozen wonderland with a bunch of talking snowmen named Olaf. Cause, why not leave the madman with company?

The Genjutsu broke, with Orochimaru's covered snake form snarling in rage at the audacity of the Kyubbi brat before swiftly biting the Uchiha's neck. The Clone stood in shock before asking, jokingly, if all the Sannin were secretly pedophiles. The snake-covered madman howled with rage and bellowed that he was not a pedophile, before swatting the Clone aside with his tail before leaving in fury.

The Clone sustained enough chakra to watch the Sannin leave before popping himself, leaving enough chakra to record the scene.

Naruto blinked before leaving the scene. He had to get the Uchiha to Jiriaya. A seal transmitted by biting someone's neck didn't sound like a good seal to keep on...

Unless it was a hickey by a fiery woman biting down on his neck to keep from screaming with pleasure. That sounded like an excellent seal, but Naruto unfortunately had to make sure he was able to survive the dangers of the shinobi world before he could indulge in his fantasies. Shinobi he may be, but he was still a male.

The war had ended swiftly in surrender for the Sunagakure Shinobi. The Sound had been slaughtered with none alive, and only thirty of two hundred strong had survived for the Sand. Luckily, Sound had the majority of the forces, so there was that for Suna's side to be thankful for.

Still, Suna had been pardoned as the Sand shinobi had been upset to realize that their Kage's body had been used by Orochimaru. Suna would remain allies with Konoha, but only after certain trades were made between the two. The Sandiame had been killed, and a mourning would take place soon. The elders tried to make Jiriaya Hokage, but he'd refused and stated he'd find Tsunade so she'd be Hokage instead.

Naruto had brought Sasuke to Jiriaya, whom had been surprised and saddened to know that Orochimaru had escaped. He sealed away his curse mark with a simple Evil Sealing Method Seal, stating that Sasuke's seal was much stronger than Anko's, so it would depend on Sasuke's will to ensure the seal functioned for the most part.

Naruto had been told, firmly without question, that he'd be joining Jiriaya on his mission to finding Tsunade. He objected briefly, before Kakashi stated firmly that Jiriaya himself was one person, and someone with Naruto's skills in Kage Bunshin would be necessary to finding Tsunade as quickly as possible.

The Sandaime's burial had been decided to happen the day before Tsunade became Hokage officially, so as to inspire people to join together for their new Kage, as they had done for their old Kage. In the meantime, the Sandaime's body would remain buried under a hidden location of Jiraiya's choosing, who did not trust Danzo and the elders.

With all said and done, Jiriaya and Naruto departed from Konoha's Eastern Gates.


	6. Chapter 6

Eyes of Ice

Chapter Six: Forced Mission, Ice Versus Fire, and An unexpected development.

Naruto was angry. Outraged. Sick with anger. He'd been forced to play tag-along combined with Hide-and-Seek with an incompetent perverted idiot of a Sannin. Jiriaya may have been powerful, but he more than made up with that benefit by acting like a complete fool nine times out of ten.

He still tried to get Naruto to train with him, although Naruto continually and consistently refused. Jiriaya apologized for spying on him before asking him yet again, and Naruto refused again, pointing out that the two fought too differently for the training to even be viable.

To point this out, Naruto had pinned Jiriaya with a senbon, making him unable to move for over five hours. Naruto had his Shadow Clones carry the man during that time, and released him only when it was time to set out a camp out for the night. Jiriaya had scowled down at the Uzumaki before boasting he couldn't do that in a straight fight.

Naruto had outright laughed at the Sannin before pointing out that Naruto never, ever, if possible, fought in a straight fight. He acted like a true shinobi; he reasoned coldly, that one shouldn't be even noticed before striking. That was the main reason why they could never train together. Not only were their fighting styles different, but so did their ideology. Jiriaya conceded the argument before the night before shouting boastfully that he'd get him in the end.

Naruto shook his head flatly before he went to sleep in his tent, which had seven invisible Ice-Armor Clones to act as guards. His tent had been simple made leather, with a seal threaded into the top of it. In a moment's notice, Naruto could seal it away and be ready for a fight.

The same patterns repeated, intermixing between Jiriaya running around to peep at the bath's for 'research' and begging Naruto to let him joining. Naruto had warned him once that he had Shadow Clones scouting the nearby towns, and if Jiriaya ended up going in the wrong one because it held bathhouses, Naruto will leave him behind.

Jiriaya realized he wasn't kidding the hard way, when he had to make a full forty eight hour sprint to catch up to Naruto, who had skipped four nearby towns when his Clones found Tsunade to not be in them. Jiriaya had collapsed to sleep on the dirt when he caught up with Naruto. Naruto had shrugged and went back to sleep that night in his tent.

Naruto wasn't idle in his work though. He had been practicing more on his Wind and Water Styles when he found Ice Styles weakness to Lightning Jutsu. So far though, it had been difficult, much harder than before. His reasoning on this was that his body was now so used to churning out the combined affinities that separating them was much harder for him to do. So far he'd been able to use Wind Style up to the level of mastery he'd attained to beforehand, but the Water nature he formed instantly froze, indicating that Naruto's mastery of Ice nature had sunk into his chakra network, making him a first generation Ice-user.

While that was useful, and meant that he might be able to perfect Ice chakra to a level much closer to Haku's, it also meant his weakness against Lightning was all the more dangerous. Still, his equally powerful Wind Nature indicated that Naruto was more likely a Wind Nature Primary and Water Secondary, rather than the Water Primary that Kakashi had assumed.

That at least appeased Naruto slightly. His Ice Style had a defense against Lightning Jutsu, its ultimate weakness, but was still susceptible to Fire Style on both ends. Of course, Fire could be directed away by Wind, but it cost a bit more chakra to control properly.

His Shadow Clones had gone more digging back in Konoha, focused more on medical then on Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. Naruto wanted, nay, needed to learn more about the body. Naruto wanted to know everything about the human body, and more importantly on how to heal him with medical chakra. His natural chakra healing system was effective, sure, but knowing how to heal someone with medical chakra meant he also knew on how to damage someone that much more efficiently.

Naruto was all about becoming better in efficiency.

Still, Naruto was far more interested on the battle flute he'd prospected. Naruto coined the term because scavenging or looting sounded more like robbing from someone... and you can't rob from a dead body.

The battle flute was the same as any ordinary flute, although the wood was hardened and far denser then it rightfully should be. Naruto didn't break it into pieces for study because he didn't want to destroy his one chance at a potential Genjutsu instrument capable of enacting Genjutsu through sound.

Naruto did notice that the user, mainly himself, was also trapped in the Genjutsu caused by the flute. Each specific note caused a different change in the chakra being channeled. After fiddling around with it, Naruto had come up with something of a breakthrough.

By channeling chakra into his ears, Naruto could deflect the flute's high-pitched noise, stopping the flute's Genjutsu from working on himself. He'd also been able to form a Genjutsu through his normal chakra output, indicating just how powerful the flute really was. It was almost like a Doujutsu-level Genjutsu for the Doujutsu-less. In short, as if it was made for Naruto himself.

The Genjutsu was the Five-Stake-Paralysis, a Genjutsu well-known to only be possible for the Sharingan Users. No one aside from the Kurama Clan had been able to recreate it... Until now. His clone had popped to show him that his Genjutsu had worked flawlessly. Naruto's grin would have scared Jiriaya out his body, but Naruto had been wearing his mask so Jiriaya had never seen his face.

Naruto found that the more notes played into the flute, the more complex the Genjutsu would become. This would be useful, he deduced, if he let a Shadow Clone playing a flute in the background to disorient opponents for quick, easy, deaths.

More so, Naruto found that by creating a Genjutsu beforehand, and channeling it through the flute instead of the ground, the Genjutsu traveled through sound, which was probably how Kin developed her Sound-Genjutsu abilities back in the primaries, Naruto deduced shortly afterwards.

Still, Naruto had been unable to practice with the flute nearly as much as he'd liked, as Jiriaya would ask where he got it, or how he made it. So, he practiced whenever he left the Sannin behind, which was every couple of towns or so, as Jiriaya was a pervert to the bone.

That wasn't to say Naruto was an angel, but he never understood Jiraiya's blatant tactics. Women didn't desire a man so blatant in his enjoyment of the female body. He didn't claim to know what women wanted, but he knew he himself would like someone who wouldn't judge him at face value, and who would be willing to go against the world for him. Hinata, he admitted to himself quietly, might've been that person. Still, to turn back now and pretend to act like the dark things he did was something that could easily be fixed, was not in Naruto's nature.

His hands were stained with blood, and the only way to make sure that blood wasn't spilt for nothing, was to spill yet more blood. As it was, Naruto was certain that he'd find someone eventually, after he'd become strong enough to defend both that person and himself.

Some small part of him doubted he'd ever find, let alone deserve, anyone that would be willing to love, or even like, him. Still, if that was his fate, so be it. Naruto ignored the tear falling down his left cheek. It was the onions, he reasoned, onions somewhere were being chopped and he was reacting to them.

A flimsy excuse, but it was all he had.

Shaking his head lightly, he stopped the morbid train of thought. He had things to train in, theories to learn and practice into reality. He didn't have time to look at himself in pity.

Eventually, it was nearing mid-day, and Jiriaya suddenly turned toward Naruto seriously and told him that they were going to stay in a hotel nearby. Naruto took off his mask long enough to show his deadpanned expression before placing it back on just as fast. Jiriaya shrugged and stated that it was mostly because sleeping in a bed might help them in their search, and that there was only so much that he, as an old man, could take.

Naruto wanted to say no, that they could keep searching until they find her and be done with the accursed mission, but Naruto did admit mentally to himself that he would enjoy a nice bed to sleep in, and his logical reasoning did point out that he could train while Jiriaya went to 'research'.

They agreed, much to Jiraiya's obvious glee, and Naruto left to go to a Hotel, ignoring Jiraiya's traipse over to a busty lady who crooned at him. If there was someone like Jiriaya, there must be someone who might like Jiriaya. He didn't judge.

Once he checked into the hotel and entered the room given, he checked it out. It looked nice, much more accommodating then the Spartan-Styled tents they had. Naruto looked down at the neatly made bed next to the wall, and then looked at the second bed next to the door. He looked back at the one next to the wall, the one right in front of him, and felt an absurd urge of childishness.

For once, he indulged in his childishness and jumped, landing on a belly flop into the bed and sighed in obvious content that only a teen could give.

As he was about to open a scroll and have the forty Shadow Clones stored within to train on his battle flute Genjutsu, someone knocked.

Naruto flipped out of the bed and onto his feet, eyes narrowing behind his mask. Jiriaya wouldn't have knocked, so it was someone uninvited. He walked up to the door and opened it, having henge'd into an old lady.

Itachi and Kisame were surprised to see an old lady with purple eyes open the door. The lady said hello politely, smiling gently at the two young men, asking them if they needed some assistance. Kisame, not bothered by even the slightest sense of morals, took his Samehada to cut her in half.

Alarm bells tripped in Itachi's head as the old lady still smiled even as the legendary Samehada went to cleave her into shredded chunks of flesh. He shunshined to the other side of the hall, and was thankful he had done so.

The 'old lady' exploded into a bunch of ice fragments, cutting up Kisame who had been in ground zero of the blast. Kisame shrugged off the damage, grinning like a loon. Samehada growled in its own peculiar way, making Kisame scowl down at the sword.

"I didn't know you hated the cold, Samehada. Why didn't you tell me earlier? ... You never faced off against it before? Wait... But you liked the chakra, despite it being cold? It tasted like sushi? Samehada, I didn't know you were into cold 'old' fish."

Itachi and Naruto had stopped any thoughts of action, staring at the clearly-insane male ninja. Who the fuck talks to a sword?

Returning to normal, Naruto had switched with a Shadow Clone covered in Ice Armor while it was henge'd. He was now a small beetle crawling in the hallway. Itachi hadn't noticed, having shunshined in order to escape a surprise counter attack.

Naruto stopped the transformation, as he'd isolated Kisame with a couple of Shadow Clones using Genjutsu. Naruto's theory was right that Kisame and Itachi were meant to fight together: Itachi was clearly the Genjutsu expert, as Kisame's extremely large reserves left him open to a Genjutsu attack.

Itachi looked straight at Naruto's mask, telling him in a monotone voice. "Come with us, Naruto."

Naruto had been floored at the clearly-insidious request before deciding to make a joke of it.

"Jeez, Itachi-san, first Orochimaru wants me for some one-on-one time and now you? Is every S-rank Ninja a pedophile in secret or is it just me? Or perhaps you're looking for someone more... how should I put this... Petite? Ya know a submissive? If so, may I recommend your brother? He clearly has an obsession with you, and not the... brotherly kind."

Itachi's right eye twitched at that remark, and he had to keep his face passive as the Kyubbi Jinchurriki clearly paired him with his own brother! First, contrary to belief, he was not gay. Second, eww, man, that was his brother! Just what kind of stuff were they teaching at the Academy these days?!

Naruto was blatantly bidding his time while he prepped himself for the most difficult battle he'd ever done. Sure enough, a small pop occurred and he found himself in front of Itachi, whose Sharingan were spinning rapidly as he noticed his Genjutsu was nullified somehow.

Naruto smirked at the S-rank ninja, casting a subtle Genjutsu at the man. Itachi blinked his Sharingan spinning rapidly as he broke through the Genjutsu. Itachi frowned ever so slightly at the Jinchurriki. He was quite sure reports indicated that Naruto didn't know any Genjutsu, let alone how to dispel one.

Itachi noticed some high pitched music playing in the background, and outright frowned. He was somehow caught in his signature Five Stake Paralysis Genjutsu. He easily broke through it of course, but Itachi had to put more effort into the subjugation, and the fact that he had to try to break a Genjutsu at all showed Naruto's skill in the art.

Itachi blinked, his Sharingan staring. He was sure he just saw Naruto vanish, right in front of him. That was a pathetic Genjutsu to use, he reasoned, and tried to break it. Nothing happened, and for once, Itachi felt a small sliver of fear.

The last person to ever hide from his eyes so effectively had been Madara Uchiha himself. His levels of disturbance had just spiked to Oh-Shit-I'm-so-dead level.

He quickly changed into his Mangekyo Sharingan, and there was nothing. Itachi then tried to move, in order to go join Kisame. Only he couldn't move at all. A monotone voice echoed inside Itachi's skull, and Itachi's Mangekyo spun, trying to break a Genjutsu he couldn't even see.

"Itachi Uchiha. Traitor. Spy to Konoha against Akatsuki. Did you assume I would never notice your treachery? Did you assume I'd obey your will, and actually bow to you? Pathetic. You were a tool. Always had been, always will be. However, you're more of a liability then an asset now. Luckily, I've ensnared the Kyubbi Jinchurriki since he was a small infant, and he has been a more reliable tool then you ever were. Why did you think I never took him and removed the Bijuu from his stomach since?"

Itachi strained to try and break the Genjutsu holding him in place, terror filling his mind and clouding his already slightly-poor vision. Madara knew he was a traitor! He would go after Sasuke! He needed to stop him!

Itachi only knew one way to break the powerful Genjutsu holding him in place, and began molding his chakra to summon the crow hidden in his stomach.

Naruto had hidden under his Throat Clever, relieved to note that even Itachi's weird Sharingan had been unable to see past the blade's field. Naruto had noted that Sasuke had been unable to detect the Ninjutsu under his field's effects, and was curious to see if it would extend to Itachi in terms of Genjutsu. The field did more than hide from Doujutsu for the User, it made the Doujutsu unable to detect a Jutsu being cast on them.

Brilliant. Amazing.

Itachi's eyes continued to spin faster and faster, trying to break his 'Voice of Doubts' Genjutsu. To his surprise, Itachi suddenly opened his mouth to reveal a crow with a regular eye and a Sharingan unlike any he had ever seen. Naruto suspected this was Itachi's trump card to escape his Genjutsu, and wouldn't allow that. He threw a simple kunai, which pierced the crow's small beating heart.

The crow fell to the ground, dead. Itachi's Sharingan still spun quickly, mesmerizing Naruto quickly before he returned to his new action. Taking two scrolls, he sealed away the crow's dead corpse for study, particularly the weird Sharingan design.

Itachi's eyes were also odd to him, and he didn't have any preservative jars with him. However, a corpse worked just as well. He flung a kunai filled with Ice chakra into the missing ninja's heart.

It missed, as Itachi suddenly broke out of the Genjutsu and swatted the kunai away with his bare hands. Itachi actually began snarling, almost furiously upset before fear set into his eyes. The Sharingan glistened wetly, almost as if Itachi's' eyes were about to well up with tears. Naruto focused though, and restarted his Genjutsu.

Itachi's chakra was off, almost as if it was vibrating violently and Naruto's Genjutsu was unable to even move into Itachi's body for anything longer then a moment or two before it just went through Itachi, as if he wasn't there.

Naruto was awed. Itachi was tapping into what may just be the worlds most powerful, and only, Space-Time Ninjutsu. Itachi looked down at the ground, as if something was there.

Naruto blinked, his mouth gaping as his eyes stared. Right in front of Itachi was the crow, with its single beady eye and its other weird Sharingan design. Itachi had just literally recreated that crow from nothing at all.

Naruto watched as Itachi's eyes flared brightly, and the crow was swiftly swallowed into Itachi's throat again. His weird spiral-shaped Sharingan spun faster and faster, before resetting back into the normal Sharingan set. Naruto struck; now was his chance.

Itachi was amazed, as always, with his Sharingan's never ending potential. Izanagi had been based to defend the User from all attacks by drawing the User away from reality, making the Uchiha untouchable for a short period of time. Of course, most Uchiha used up the ability and ended up losing the eye they used it in.

Itachi had learned that by stopping the jutsu just before the eye's time was used up, as indicated by the growing blackness in the eye's vision, would make the damage reset. Itachi used this ability very, very, sparingly, only when he'd faced opponents he knew he'd be unable to fight otherwise. That had only happened twice. When he was four, as rubble had been plunging toward him with his Sharingan activating during the incident. Second time when he was versing a very dangerous Kurama Clan Head who had gone insane and who wielded an ability to draw his Genjutsu into reality.

Still, extending that ability even one foot in front of him had cost him nearly half of his remaining chakra, and then the rest had been used to recreate the crow that held his precious brother-in-arms Mangekyo Sharingan. To lose the eye that had been given to him by his best friend, would be to fail Shisui, and he'd die before he let that happen.

In a severe sense of irony, Itachi had been saved by Sasuke showing up declaring vengeance. Naruto had cursed under his hidden field, having been ready to throw a kunai into the missing Nin's throat. If Sasuke was here, then Jiriaya was probably close to returning due to the younger Uchiha's odd chakra presence from the Curse Mark.

Itachi grabbed Sasuke's arm that had held the Chidori, breaking his wrist in the exact same manner Naruto had done, and kicked him away into the wall before holding him by the throat.

Naruto watched carefully as Itachi caught Sasuke with a Genjutsu, his spinning Sharingan staring deeply into Sasuke's own not-yet-fully-evolved pair of red eyes. Sasuke yelled and screeched in pain, before his eyes dulled out and became empty. Clearly Itachi was far more effective with Genjutsu using his Sharingan, and then even he had given him credit for.

Mere seconds after that, Kisame reappeared, his face set into a manic grin. "I haven't had to merge with Samehada since that fight against the Four Tails back when I was with the Mist. Heh, the Kyubbi Jinchurriki is certainly an interesting Jinchurriki."

Naruto cussed out in his mind. Kisame's connection with Samehada was far more powerful then he'd anticipated, and he'd bet big money that Kisame had sucked the chakra out his two Shadow Clones, ensuring he would be unable to anticipate Kisame coming.

Jiriaya arrived, placing his Toad Jutsu that changed the entire hallway into a stomach lining. Itachi commanded for them to leave, and the two S-ranks fled toward the end of the hallway.

Naruto's eyes narrowed: He couldn't have them spouting at the mouth of his weaknesses that would surely get him killed. Luckily, Jiriaya had done him a favor.

Living Tissue made his Genjutsu much more potent, and much faster in transmission then the Earth's natural rock formations.

Naruto focused, creating an extremely dense focal point in his hand before placing it against the Stomach Lining, ignoring Jiraiya's warnings.

He intoned mentally, one eye slamming shut as his cold blue eye flared brightly from the chakra he released.

'Genjutsu: Thousand Choices of Reincarnation!'

The huge pulse of chakra surged forward, moving much faster than it would have been possible. It quickly sped up to engage the two S-rank missing ninja, flooding through their feet as each foot hit the ground. Itachi and Kisame didn't notice it, as Kisame had removed Samehada back into a sword to prepare for shearing into the wall of flesh and gouge it out for their escape.

Naruto shifted their minds, his eyes focused as he began replacing their interactions with something of his own design.

He finished the effect just in time, as Kisame ripped the wall of flesh off, with the duo then fleeing the area.

Naruto removed his hand from the wall, now back to normal with Jiraiya's stomping foot. Naruto quickly showed Jiriaya that his hands were fine, with Jiriaya grunting about how lucky Naruto's regeneration really was.

Jiriaya ordered Naruto to summon a Shadow Clone to take Sasuke to the hospital back in Konoha, and Naruto quickly agreed, sending four Shadow Clones off to take the Uchiha back to Konoha. The duo set off again out of town, mainly because the innkeeper kicked them out for damaging his hotel. Naruto stretched lightly before they set off to cover some ground before resting for the night.

Underneath the mask, Naruto was grinning madly. He'd tested three theories today, had gotten his hands on a unique Sharingan that he was certain was different, and more likely an evolved Sharingan ability unique to it since Itachi had gone to an amazing length to recreate it, and had been able to activate a Genjutsu that he'd been planning for a while, but had never had the opportunity to use before.

'Genjutsu: Thousand Choices of Reincarnation.' That particular Jutsu was very powerful, and very costly. It depended on the amount of chakra he had available, and on how much concentration he could afford. Naruto essentially dived into the minds of the two missing ninja, and rewrote the memories of the duo.

It was only able to work on the five minutes of memory not yet written into the ninja's permanent memory, and each minute of memory being rewritten cost him a giant chunk of chakra, not to mention making the Genjutsu unstable after a period of time. Luckily, the duo had only interacted with Naruto within the first two minutes, so the ability was fairly stable.

It had cost him all of his chakra, and he knew he'd been lucky not to go into Chakra Shock. The benefit outweighed the risks though: The fewer enemies that knew his abilities, the better.

Now he held two of the world's most powerful Doujutsu types. The Byakugan and the Sharingan were perspectively the strongest in their fields. Naruto honestly preferred the Byakugan between the two, because the ability to see miles all around his head was far more powerful for someone of his attack type, as the Sharingan was more meant for the frontal-tank types like Jiriaya.

Still, the Sharingan would be useful against someone like Itachi, and unearthing the ability unique to the evolved Sharingan would be awesome. Add in the Sharingan's natural ability to read Jutsu, as well as his own field ability, and Naruto was certain that the Doujutsu would be useful to learn secret clan jutsu, of which the Nara clan's Shadow Mimicry and the Yamanaka's Mind Walking Jutsu were among his top priorities for learning before leaving Konoha.

Of course, Naruto still needed to learn how to transfer eyes into his own body, as he'd need to learn much higher medical jutsu then the basics he already knew. Naruto blinked before he stated calmly to Jiriaya.

"My Shadow Clone near Tanzaku has detected Tsunade and her travelling companion heading toward the village. No doubt for the gambling tournament. We will head there and get there by less than a third of a day's travel if we don't stop to rest... And I will not rest tonight, Jiriaya so I will leave you behind if you set up camp."

Jiriaya scowled down at Naruto before saying sternly. "No. We rest for tonight. You were nearly captured by two S-rank ninja and I need the rest to replenish my chakra reserves. Tsunade is known for her temperament, so I don't want you to go ahead, and then find you being a bloody paste across the town with your organs splattering the roads."

Naruto's eyes narrowed behind the mask before nodding sharply: He'd leave a Shadow Clone to rest with Jiriaya before he headed out on his own ahead. He needed to ensure Jiriaya didn't know about the Doujutsu he held, and he wanted to learn from the best medic ninja in the world. A couple of hours under his Genjutsu mixture, and he was certain Tsunade wouldn't mind training him in her arts, just as Kurenai didn't mind Naruto mastering her own art.

Luckily, Naruto had perfected the Genjutsu to be able to work around the ninja's natural defenses, and Naruto had several backups as well. Unlike Kurenai, whose mind was naturally resistant to a high degree because she was a Genjutsu Specialist, Tsunade didn't have those defenses.

Once they began to camp up, Naruto carefully formed chakra into his foot. He pulsed the chakra into the ground near him, and he nodded to the Shadow Clone that appeared next to him. He Shunshined from the area, with the Shadow Clone as decoy.

Naruto didn't have the luxury he expected to have. Clearly Jiriaya either was suspicious of him, or was clearly trying to keep him close for his own protection. Either way, Naruto had no plans that held him being baby-sat by a Sannin of the Toads.

He quickly reached Tanzaku, with the help of his powerful over-charged Shunshin, courtesy of a scroll filled with his chakra for recharge. Once there, he left for the bar that his Shadow Clone had hidden in a dispelled nearly five minutes earlier.

He entered the wooden bar, noting the bartender serving drinks while looking warily at a blonde woman who was already loud and proclaimed for more sake. He quickly removed his Konoha headband, and hid under a field while studying the duo.

Tsunade was clearly the loud, busty, woman while the black-haired woman with a pig in her hands was her apprentice Shizune. Interesting. Luckily, he knew of the vices of the Senju woman: She had a phobia of blood, and she was well known to gamble away lots of money.

He henge'd into a man with medium grey hair and bits of black hair to make him look like an aging man. He removed the field and walked toward Tsunade. Tsunade looked at him with interest, as not many dared to get close to the obviously-drunk Senju.

"Hello, my name is Daranto Uruji. I was hoping we could get ourselves a nearby table at a casino next to here for a couple of games. I figured since you enjoy the luxuries in life we could get a good poker game or two."

He smiled down at the Senju, whose eyes brightened with delight. Clearly she enjoyed a good poker game... Or she just really enjoyed gambling as a sport. Tsunade quickly left the bar, telling Shizune to put the tab down for the drinks, whom protested briefly before being quiet.

Naruto was intrigued. Just before Shizune had been quiet, her eyes had been dark and menacing. Someone was clearly getting fed up with the mentor acting like an idiot, and Naruto couldn't truthfully blame her. He was curious about Shizune, and was now after something just as valuable as his apprenticeship with Tsunade.

Information on the clearly resentful female apprentice.

He decided that an act of good fortune would go a long way, particularly for the female apprentice who was clearly used to being a wallflower compared to Tsunade.

He placed down a fifty-thousand Ryo Note on the table, with Shizune's eyes widening in shock. He smiled kindly down at her, saying softly.

"I know what it's like, being abandoned and forgotten. Please keep in mind, Angel-Chan, that you are no Wallflower, and are beautiful in your own right."

Shizune blushed and nodded shyly. She smiled and said "Thank you." He nodded before leaving to catch up with Tsunade.

He caught up with her once they reached the casino, although Tsunade did raise an eyebrow at him. Naruto decided a simple excuse and reasoning would work for it.

"I prefer brunettes, no offense." Tsunade nodded, a bit surprised at that statement. Most would rather stare at her breasts, but clearly the man before her had his own tastes. Those actually made her feel more comfortable, knowing the man wouldn't be eyeing her up. Of course, the idea that the aging man was looking at her apprentice like that made her feel... inadequate, for an odd reason. Of course, she hated the idea that all men looked at her like a walking breast sack, but the idea that a nice gentlemen preferred her apprentice made her feel rather upset, in a small way.

Was she doomed to be hounded by Jiraiya's type, but ignored by the gentlemen?

Once they reached an empty small square table with a set of poker chips, they sat down on opposite sides, with Tsunade grinning widely. This was her win, she could feel it.

Naruto inwardly chuckled at Tsunade's eagerness. She definitely enjoyed gambling. Luckily, Naruto had brought quite a bit of money with him. He didn't much care for the gambling: Hell, he didn't even know the rules, but he had a bit of other ideas.

Naruto had been transferring Shadow Clones hidden as very small Dust Mites from their walk between the casino and the bar. Much like he had done to Shizune. Shino may have died, but his tactics with using insects was brilliant and Naruto copied that.

Each Shadow Clone would carefully meld their chakra together into the flesh through Tsunade's skin and into her tissues. Unlike before, where Naruto had used brute force in order to forcefully control and manipulate the mind, Naruto's method had been refined to use the bloodstream to circulate into the brain.

With each passing minute, Tsunade and Shizune both would have their mind patterns altered to suite his desires, and would also end up with more than enough Shadow Clones to keep this up until they produce his chakra inside the body naturally. By slowly doing this overtime, the mind would begin to shift into the position naturally.

It would take at least a good couple of days, but it would be well worth the wait. Naruto had immediately recognized the seal on Tsunade's forehead, and had considered tampering with it to create more of his chakra, but that could kill her, and he had no desire to see knowledge lost due to stupidity.

After a couple of poker games, Tsunade scowled at the young man. Either he was a genius, or was a blind lucky idiot. He'd been baiting her by betting in the really high digits, and she had followed suit, believing her luck would work. It backfired immensely, with the man clearly winning larger and larger margins each time as he never removed his new poker chips from the playing pile.

Finally she proclaimed defeat, and the man did something she hadn't expected. He paid her a good twenty thousand Ryo note. She blinked at him: What game was he playing at? She had the idea for a second or two of female fury at the idea that he thought she was a... sex for hire, but she realized quickly that he preferred brunettes so that didn't make sense.

The man clarified himself, stating that he didn't really know how to play the game was paying her for letting him try. He knew she had extremely bad luck, and had wanted to see what it meant to be able to play. That, and he said even more quietly with slight embarrassment in his tone, and he really wanted to chat up her apprentice without her getting upset at him.

Tsunade stared for a good minute or two, before she... giggled. Not chuckle, not laugh boastingly, but giggle. Tsunade may be a strong woman, but she was still a woman, and it had warmed her heart a bit to know her apprentice wasn't ignored because of her presence as she feared. She smiled at the clearly embarrassed man before giving back the note, stating it was a good match between new friends, and that he could chat up her apprentice whenever he wanted... Except when she was drunk, she warned him rather coldly.

Despite seeming like a nice guy, nice guys could still be creeps in sheep's clothing. The man nodded, his body posture indicating he was being honest. She sighed with relief.

They continued to play poker for the next two hours as fun between friends, with Tsunade slowly teaching him the rules while answering the questions he had about her apprentice. She had been happy to chat away about her apprentice: It wasn't often that anyone asked about her apprentice and what she liked, although she quickly became stumped and guilt filled her. She didn't know the answers to more than a couple of questions out of the thirty or so that he asked. Was she really so pre-occupied with herself and her problems as to have eventually ignored her apprentice's wants and needs?

The guilt pooling in her heart and stomach said that yes, she had been completely preoccupied and unfair.

Naruto was satisfied. Tsunade had answered every question he asked, his Shadow Clones making her more preoccupied with guilt, making her unable to think about which questions she was answering compared to the ones she couldn't answer. It seems he didn't need to worry about being apprenticed under Tsunade: Shizune already knew everything Tsunade had taught her, and was simply staying with her out of loyalty, or, his mind pointed out cynically, out of having nowhere else to go.

They parted after the couple of hours of poker, laughing and joking with one another. Tsunade met back up with Shizune, winking at him with slyness before telling Shizune they'd be staying at a hotel nearby for the week. Shizune nodded calmly, carrying the pig whose name he learned was Tonton. Apparently the pig was a ninja-trained one, capable of smelling out traps and Genjutsu, which Naruto found was efficient and useful. Luckily, his unique brand of Genjutsu was one that the pig had never encountered before.

Shizune had blushed when Naruto brushed past her while winking saucily before heading away from the duo.

Once they were sufficiently away from one another, Naruto quickly flickered into another dust mite Henge, this time attaching himself to Tsunade's hair. His Henge was a solid transformation, which was something unique among the shinobi world. He assumed this was most likely because of the Kyubbi within his stomach, but it did come in handy when hiding and spying.

The duo quickly entered the hotel, and into the room they had been given a key for. Tsunade spoke, her voice soft and quiet, almost as if she'd been scolded.

"I'm... sorry, Shizune."

Shizune blinked at her slowly before she rubbed the back of her head and began to wave away her apology.

Tsunade shook her head firmly, and began to explain why she was sorry.

"I didn't realize how much I'd been ignoring what you wanted and needed, until the handsome man began asking questions about you. He prefers brunettes, and hadn't looked at my breasts even once. He actually didn't even know how to play poker and was actually trying to appease me before asking all about you. It... Humbled me, realizing I really didn't know much about you anymore, and made me depressed. It wasn't fair and right to you. Who stuck with me even as I left your home, without thinking about whether or not you even wanted to leave."

Tsunade took a deep breath, bracing herself before she said one final statement firmly.

"This is why you're no longer my apprentice. We are equals, have been for quite some time now. Starting tomorrow, we're going to find that handsome man, and you are going to give him a chance to enjoy slurping you up with his charm. I saw your blush, and I must say, it's been awhile since any man's ignored me, Shizune... I think you have a keeper. As for after that, I think you deserve one request that I must follow, in order to make up for being such a horrible person to you."

Shizune blushed, turning tomato red before she nodded shakily, smiling and beaming brightly at Tsunade. They quickly began to undress, as both apparently enjoy sleeping in the nude. Naruto and his subsequent clones, even as dust mites, became glued to the glorious sights available.

Naruto hadn't been joking when he said he preferred brunettes, and the fact that Shizune was stripping shamelessly had his blood boiling. Shizune removed her clothes, looking down slightly at her rather small-by-comparison breasts. She was a healthy C-cup, whereas Tsunade was around a heavy D-E cup. She blinked when Tsunade poked her on the forehead, shook her head softly and pointed out that the man didn't even look at her large breasts even once.

Shizune blushed, before she began panting slightly, her eyes glazing. She was remembering his smooth deep voice, his whispers of her being an Angel and imagining all sorts of things. A slight blush went from her face down her neck, and began to make her nipples harden quickly. She began clenching her thighs together tightly, whimpering as her wonderful cavern began to leak slightly, burning with need she hadn't felt in a while.

Tsunade moaned quietly, as the smell of womanly musk began to fill the room. She was actually bi-sexual, although she leaned more toward women than men, although Dan had been an amazing man in bed and understanding of her needs. She also enjoyed being a little submissive, not that anyone ever knew that given her character. Her own nipples began to harden as she saw Shizune panting and whimpering, trying to keep herself from relieving herself in front of her once-mentor.

The two's eyes began to become heavy lidded; the brown of Tsunade's staring into Shizune's own black eyes. Shizune began to pant and whimper more heavily as more and more images began to curl her down into a spiral that she didn't want to leave. Tsunade carefully edged closer to her, her own musk filling the air as small beads of liquid began dewing from her own cavern.

Once the two were inches apart from one another, Tsunade tilted Shizune's face up ever so slowly toward her own face. The two were panting heavily now, mouths open slightly as they began to breath in and out heavily to inhale as much oxygen as possible. She began to tilt her forehead closer to Shizune's, until the two foreheads were touching and Tsunade's face was mere centimeters from Shizune's own glazed eyes.

"Beautiful." She whispered, caressing her apprentice's smooth, silky, skin on the cheek. The cheeks were red, almost flaming, from the blush she had permanently on her face and neck. She slowly and gently, waiting to see if she wouldn't like it to happen, began to bring their lips closer and closer together.

The two mashed together gently, although Shizune's eyes closed completely as her equal began to carefully keep her apprentice's mouth, letting her apprentice's hesitant tongue explore and get used to kissing as she had never kissed anyone in this manner, neither man or woman. Shizune enjoyed the texture, and kept getting hotter and hotter when she realized her mentor was letting her do this.

The taste was slightly bitter due to the alcohol, but the taste of blue berries and strawberries entered Shizune's mind, lighting her up from the inside like a fire cracker. Shizune began wrestling with the tongue inside her mentor's mouth, whose eyes had widened slightly before returning to their half-lidded expression.

Soon, the two turned into frenzy. Shizune's left hand went down to her mentor's smooth rear, groping and caressing it gently before she began to explore her mentor's smooth inner thighs, whose legs widened to accept the feminine smooth hand that knew instinctively what spots should be touched and caressed.

Meanwhile, Tsunade moaned heavily into her apprentice's mouth, enjoying the hand that kept teasing her between her legs, carefully and gently massaging her inner thighs before going around her lower lips, except to brush across the extremely smooth hairs just outside of the entrance of her cavern. They went slightly up to the golden pubic hair that she had left normal and unshaven. She gasped and moaned, shaking slightly as her apprentice began to tug lightly on those hairs, the smallest spikes of pain mixing in with the oh-so-good sensations that rocked her lower frame.

Tsunade began to return the passionate favor, having one of her hands reach up to caress her apprentice's smooth breasts, caressing and squeezing gently as she twirled her own smooth nails to lightly scratch the smooth breasts, but never touching the nipple and only teasing her slightly with lightly scratching the areola.

Her other hand went closer to her apprentices now damp, wet, thighs, also smoothly massaging and caressing the pale skin. After a couple of gentle pushes and prods, Shizune let her thighs open apart, letting Tsunade explore her with the same careful caresses she was currently giving.

She gasped out, as her mentor decided to go for the killing blow and rubbed her clit gently. She moaned heavily, falling onto her bed gently as her legs gave out on her. Tsunade smiled gently at her apprentice, before moving her so she could lay down on her side right up to her apprentice's own rear.

With the two spooning gently, Tsunade hummed lightly as she lifted her apprentice's leg up and leaving her fresh cavern open a again to the world. She put her apprentice's leg over her own, whispering gently into her apprentice's ear, making her shiver and moan softly.

"This is your night, Shizune. Let me repay in some small way please. I won't take away your request later. After all, this'll be fun for me too."

Shizune's half lidded eyes looked into Tsunade's own before she contorted her own back slightly as they began kissing heavily, with tongue occasionally entering each other's mouths. While Tsunade's left hand held her leg smoothly but firmly against her own, her right hand went straight down into the wet cavern, her two fingers entering Shizune smoothly while her thumb began caressing her clit, gently rolling around it while occasionally touching it.

Shizune nearly shrieked into Tsunade's mouth as waves of pleasure erupted. She moaned and contorted, as she began experiencing several orgasms within seconds of each other. The two stopped kissing with Shizune moaning and gasping, unable to concentrate as her body thrusted heavily into the hand offering her pleasure that she was unable to give herself.

Tsunade began whispering into Shizune's ear, her own dilated half-lidded eyes glinting as she began to rise into orgasm slowly from the naughtiness of the entire event.

"Good girl, my sweet loving apprentice. Can you imagine your man slowly licking your breasts, teasing your nipples like I did, while one hand gently opens up your wonderful wet flower? As he then finally sucks your nipple due to your pleads of need, and then forcefully fingers your cavern, opening your depths as he carefully explores the walls for some diamonds in the rough patches of your cave? While he thumbs your delicate gem above your cave, rolling it and making sure it stays nice and warm, and wet, making it cream heavily into his hand."

Shizune moaned and whimpered, thrusting against Tsunade's hand as quickly as she could. Her half-lidded eyes closed completely as she began imagining what Tsunade was saying, which only made her orgasms multiply.

Tsunade began grinding her own soaking wet cavern's 'gem' into Shizune's smooth rear, the friction of her already moving body causing Tsunade to moan and shiver even more. Tsunade suddenly grinned impishly, as moved her leg around and over the one she was holding back with her hand, held her smooth leg firmly against her groin, which she immediately began grinding even more against.

Her left hand no longer preoccupied with holding Shizune's leg apart, she moved it to Shizune's wonderful inner thighs, caressing them lightly while her right hand was going cave spelunking. Eventually, after she deemed to collect enough juices from Shizune's gushing cavern, she moved it to between her apprentices's smooth butt cheeks, fiddling and prodding the girl's sensitive forbidden hole.

Shizune began grinding even faster, moaning and groaning even louder as the forbidden tickling sensation of a finger prodding her backdoor flooded her system. Tsunade crooned to Shizune as she began to slowly dig into her apprentice's bottom, slowly fingering deep into her bottom before rubbing the walls with her nails, making Shizune whimper and moan as the slight sensation between pain and pleasure sparked deep in her body.

"Good girl. Do you like that idea? Of your man slowly sinking his tool deep into her bottom, digging into your forbidden depths as he continues to explore your cavern for yet more sweet juices? Oooh, I think you like that idea. Cum, Shizune, cum with your wonderful mentor. Screech loud for your man."

Both Tsunade and Shizune screeched and groaned loudly, cumming heavily, before they relaxed. Shizune pressed her bottom back into Tsunade's fingers digging ever so lightly at her bottom holes. Shizune's eyes remained closed as she fell deep into slumber, her body still naked with her mentor's wonderful finger sunk deep into her holes.

Tsunade remained awake for a few moments longer, as she kissed and sucked gently on her apprentice's neck, leaving a slight hickey that she kissed before falling asleep as well, letting her fingers stay inside her apprentice's holes for the time being. Who knows? Perhaps they could start again in the morning?

Naruto left the scene, his blood burning heavily as he had been thankful to see the wonderful blossoming relations. That had been extremely erotic, but it also made him slightly uncomfortable: Almost like seeing two lovers making love rather than having sex. Ah well, perhaps he could bag a two-in-one deal with the Genjutsu manipulation. After all, both Shizune and Tsunade were extremely strong in their own rights and could take care of themselves.

Once he arrived in his hotel room, he quickly returned to normal, trying and failing to get the amazingly erotic images out of his head. Finally, he decided to be done with it all, and went to sleep with the raging hard on he had.

He was sure he would be able to relieve himself with the two women at some point in this trip anyway, with the courtesy of his Genjutsu being worked on twenty-four seven by his many dust mite clones.

End Chapter Six.

A/N: What'd you guys think? This is my first lemon, and I tried to take it slow.


	7. Chapter 7

Eyes of Ice

Chapter Seven: Caught Red-Handed, Burning Trees, End of an Era

Naruto's Clones back in Konoha had been given four major tasks to accomplish, only one of which could allow anyone noticing them. The other three had to be done in complete secrecy, or Naruto, the origin, would never be able to come back, although Naruto had prepared contingencies even then.

The first task was to raid the library for further knowledge of the human body, chemistry and everything. They were also supposed to read up everything on Doujutsu transplanting, not to mention on what the drawbacks would be. All of this was common, easily accessed, knowledge provided they dug deep enough.

The second task was far more sinister: Raid the Yamanaka, Nara, and Aburame Compounds for knowledge on the bloodlines and how they functioned. Any knowledge they could find, they'd copy down immediately. The second task would lead into the third task.

The third task was simpler, but no less 'off-the-books'. They were to use the Yamanaka Techniques to find out as much as they could on the different Sharingan abilities, drawbacks, and what the different evolved Sharingan meant. By using Sasuke's mind and body, they could travel the entire place easily enough.

The fourth task would both be the most difficult, and the most rewarding. Track down the Scroll of Sealing, and copy everything contained within. Naruto knew that it would be impossible to complete this particular task without some form of distraction, and Naruto had found the perfect idea.

The shack they had found in their training ground held a secret passage, one that had held hundreds of ANBU with completely blank masks and Danzo was there as well. Clearly they had been there for some time, and Naruto had stumbled across their hide out. Naruto's plan was rather simple, but ingenious: Send as many invisible Shadow Clones in there as possible, and scatter themselves across the place. When the signal was given, they were to explode simultaneously.

After, of course, they searched the place for information, papers, and tried to take as many out as quietly as possible for more human testing, not to mention checking out Danzo himself. Danzo's commands over his Root, as he called them, were absolute, and they wanted to dig through his mind using Yamanaka Techniques before ending him.

The distraction would both show the world that Danzo was a traitor and gathering his own personal army, and would severely weaken Konoha's own forces immensely. Either way, Naruto would get his main prize: The Scroll of Sealing.

The first task was continuously being attended to by around a thousand clones consistently. That task was essentially on auto-pilot.

The second task was about to commence. Clone 4 commanded his regiment firmly, telling them they were to not fail their boss, their very existence depended on it. They nodded firmly, before they all become invisible, as well as shrouded by their Ice Armors.

Regiment one entered Yamanaka Shop swiftly, their invisible presence bypassing Ino, whom was depressed as both of her team mates had been declared MIA. With no major pool of blood, and with no body parts, they couldn't declare them dead.

They searched the place silently, not finding much of anything aside from the variety of plants as well as instructions to take care of them. One of them signaled the others: They had discovered a slight depression in the walls directly left of the pottery in the back.

Once they checked it out, they found it required a small bead of sorts. They instantly recalled the beads on Ino's ears. They knocked her out with a senbon, and removed the pair of earrings, which they pressed into the small hole. With a silent hiss, the stone slab behind the pottery slide slowly to the ground, revealing a set of stairs.

They bypassed the pottery, a quick Henge into set of small beetles took care of that, and began flittering down the stairs as beetles. They wouldn't risk tripping any alarms by stepping on the wrong step on the stairs. Once they remained on the bottom, they flittered over to the rather small amount of scrolls.

They studied the Fuinjutsu on the scrolls, no doubt security measures against theft. One clone unhenged themselves, and took out a small amount of blood from Ino that they had extracted into a vial. He poured into each scroll, nodding with satisfaction as the seals began to fade. One of them took out four giant scrolls out of the storage scroll they had on hand, and began passing them around. They began setting into work, writing down everything they could reach.

That was done quickly, and they turned to another segment of small scrolls and continued the process. This continued for the next four hallways of scrolls, before they decided they'd copied more than enough information. The rest nodded and they began the trip back. They returned back to the ground level and resealed the stone slab by tapping the same depression with the two earrings before returning them to Ino's still unconscious body.

They left to regroup at the apartment, waiting for the next regiments to return from their jobs.

Clone Seven had his own regiment, and began the same thing as the previous one; only they were tackling the Nara Compound. They were extra careful, remaining as small dust mites the entire time they explored the outside and inside parts of the compound. They soon found the entrance through a small depression inside a tree that they had found deep in the deer forest. After unsealing, and unhenging, Shikamaru's corpse, which remained untouched by time while within the seal, they grabbed the beads and pressed it into the tree's depression.

They immediately henge'd back into dust mites, which was just in time as the tree suddenly gained deep black markings that spread all around it until it reached Shikamaru's body. Its markings retreated, and a set of stairs emerged right next to the tree. They resealed the body, and continued on their way.

They also found scrolls, but it was rather laughable. The Nara was so lazy, that they had found it too troublesome to open another small scroll to write in. They instead had all been writing techniques and hints into a gigantic scroll. The Shadow Clones weren't complaining however: they had one clone duplicate himself to copy the gigantic scroll before leaving the area swiftly. After repeating the process, the tree sealed the stairs shut.

They also regrouped at the apartment, remaining as dust mites the entire way back. It wouldn't due to get caught last minute.

Clone ten and his regiments were armed with the most dangerous task of the second mission: Invade the Aburame Compound, take as much information as possible, and capture several different specimens of the Kikaichu insects. Naruto hoped that once he studied them, he could replicate their abilities to absorb chakra into his henge'd clones. This would be a great boon to possess.

Cloaked in their Ice Armor, and hidden under a field that had been given an extra fifty percent of their reserves to hide their scent and sound from the Aburame, they deemed themselves ready. Once they were set, they began their mission.

They quickly vaulted past the wall that surrounded the encampment. Once they did so, they felt chills from just how difficult their task was going to be.

The entire compound was shrouded under an entire moving swarm of Kikaichu, all of them shrouding even the smallest area of space. They henge'd into beetles, and flickered through the area. The Kikaichu was unable to detect them as there was no visible presence, along with the lack of usual pheromone trails left behind by insects. They soon found a small series of holes dotted along the ground and dived in.

The sight they saw was both terrifying, and amazing. The ninja of the Aburame were inside cocoons not unlike bee hives, each little room being a segment of the giant series of comb-shaped walls. They spread out, and gathered together in the center after they explored a section of the area.

Once they gathered together five times, they gained a good map of the place, and soon followed deep into the darker catacombs, the darkness being illuminated by firefly bottles connected to an inner system for the fireflies to live in peace as well as providing light.

Once they reached deep into the lower catacombs, they soon found a series of small scrolls lining the walls behind thick honey-like substance glass walls protecting them. The clone segment considered their options before coming to a conclusion: They would have to distract the main hive while they did this. It could ruin Naruto's plans, but getting the secrets of the Aburame will be vital. Plus, unlike the Uchiha Clan's single member, they couldn't go inside the mind of an Aburame in order to get it since the Aburame's inner insect system would immediately detect the breach.

Two clones went to the surface above the compound, and unhenged themselves in the middle of the swarm. Immediately, buzzing began to vibrate the entire compound below, informing the Aburame of a breach from an uninvited guest.

One of the clones detonated, exploding while using its own chakra to fuel the one hundred paper bomb tags it held in its pouch. In the middle of the loud blast, the other clone collected handfuls of samples, sealing them inside jars before turning back into a beetle to join the rest.

In the middle of the compound, the other clones froze the honey-wall, while one smashed them in. Once done, they collected those scrolls, not even bothering to copy them down. They didn't have time. Once this was done, they went back to the surface, and back to the apartment as a gathering.

The three groups gathered together, each of them informing the main caption of the second task, Clone 2. The Clone scowled at the hasty method of the third regiment, but couldn't deny the effectiveness. They soon read and reread all of the scrolls, each handed off to a new clone to memorize before dispelling themselves. Once this was done, two clones were to try out each basic Jutsu of the Nara and Yamanaka Clan to make sure they could utilize at least the basics.

Once they succeeded in doing this consecutively for another thirty times, they too dispelled, and Clone 3 took over for the third task. He ordered the three main regiments to shroud themselves throughout Danzo's base, along with the other forty regiments they had available.

He'd deal with the third task himself, and Clone 4 would command the rest of the regiment in the scroll, about a good three hundred strong, to find and copy down the Scroll of Sealing.

If no other option, Clone 4 would steal the Scroll of Sealing, and as many confidential scrolls as possible before using the rest of his available army to explode directly after the fact, to make the ninja scramble.

"Good Luck, Soldiers. It's been honor learning from one another." Clone 4 nodded to them all, before saluting them briefly, before taking the scroll that Naruto had given them for the next two weeks filled with chakra, and heading out to complete the final task at the same time Clone 3 left to complete his own.

Clone 3 easily went into the Uchiha Clan, finding Sasuke to be training in the backyard of his home. He kept flinging kunai around through targets, mumbling to himself. He landed on the roof before dispelling his beetle Henge. He focused his chakra into his hands, before muttering quietly.

"Yamanaka Secret Jutsu: Mind Path Reader." Pointing his hands together in the form of a triangle with his index fingers touching each other in the middle of the triangle, the clone flickered briefly as its mind began reading the Uchiha's.

The Clone scowled. His Jutsu had failed to work at all. Clearly this needed more careful study of those scrolls rather than the quick memorization the clones had given it.

He changed his hand sign into a square, transferring his mind into the Uchiha's body directly. The Uchiha's will had been subdued instantly, as apparently the Uchiha was busy trying to halt the will of his curse mark, making him an easy prey to the Yamanaka Jutsu.

He soon went over to the Naka Shrine, as his access to the Uchiha's mind directly had granted him access to his memories, searching the place himself with the Sharingan fully active. He ignored the tablet, and was impressed when he broke through a Genjutsu that the Uchiha himself hadn't noticed back in his younger years. A small scroll had been stuffed behind the Shrine Tablet, along with a larger pitch black scroll. One he read through it, he was grinning like a loon.

The small scroll contained details on every Mangekyo Sharingan design that had been made, including the weird Sharingan design that Naruto had captured through the corpse of the crow. The larger pitch black scroll contained the data of every jutsu ever copied by the Sharingan, and even included four Summoning Contracts held by the Uchiha since the Clan War Era. The Clone grabbed both of them and headed to the apartment.

Once there, he signaled that he was himself by whispering the password they'd established, he dropped both scrolls off before giving them an idea: Rip out the Uchiha's Sharingan set and bring them to Naruto. At the very least for study of the Sharingan, not to mention spares would be useful later on in case the Sharingan Naruto had in his possession was destroyed. The clone's debated the idea briefly before they confirmed the procedure due to new information from the regiment.

The Clone's had been caught red-handed. They needed to take everything while they could.

A while back, Clone 4 had entered the basement of the Hokage Tower, noting the huge vault right in front of him. He quickly placed paper bombs around it, before exploding the thing off its hinges. He quickly summoned the other two-hundred and eighty clones from the scroll before commanding them to take everything and seal it into a giant scroll he had been given for the occasion. There was no time left, he warned them.

The clones quickly accomplished this goal, along with sealing the Scroll of Sealing that had been found inside, not to mention several vials of blood and tissue that had been collected somewhere down Konoha's dark pasts. They also gathered the confidential scrolls they'd found in a nearby shelf. Once this was completed, Clone Four left the area as a small invisible beetle to gather the rest of the equipment before leaving Konoha for his original.

The rest of the clones began charging chakra onto as many Paper Bombs as possible inside the Vault. Some Shinobi appeared from time to time, but they quickly left when they detected no one and had assumed that the thieves had left successfully, and tried to chase the thieves down, not knowing the thieves were still there.

At the same time, the regiments around Danzo's place had been informed by another invisible beetle Clone that they had a good two minutes before they were to detonate all at once. They had responded swiftly with a reply: They had found Danzo's papers, and had found that Danzo himself was carrying a good ten Sharingan on his arm, which had been a transplant once they read the document containing Orochimaru's research. They also discovered that Danzo himself held the other eye that Naruto held.

They quickly converged for a semi-new plan, and decided that first, they'd remove Danzo's arm and eye silently, using as many Genjutsu on him as possible. Since they had a couple hundreds of dust mites on the man, it would be done somewhat easily.

Danzo somehow knew immediately and broke the Genjutsu, but ultimately failed: A Clone had sliced the arm at the shoulder blade, while another Clone had simultaneously ripped out his Mangekyo Sharingan. Danzo scowled before revealing his many Fuinjutsu defenses, noting coldly that Naruto would never escape alive before shouting for Root to converge on the two Clones. The two Clones had found they were unable to move and that their chakra was being sapped dry.

The clone regiments also swarmed the area to grab the two valuable items before leaving fewer than two invisible beetles. The rest began detonating all over the secret underground base.

The ninja were scrambling like mad. The Hokage Tower had ultimately exploded violently, with some Genin Teams and Jonin dying in the initial blast. Now, the entire ground shook heavily, as random areas of the entire Konoha village began exploding violently.

Unknown to them all, an invisible clone beetle fled Konoha, heading toward Tanzaku. He had done calculations along with the rest of the clones and determined that Konoha wouldn't be invaded even with the maximum damage they could give it: The Council would threaten to unleash a fully empowered Jinchurriki, and the rest of the major clans were still intact so there would be little to no loss of current military power, technically.

Unknown to the rest of the populace, Danzo's reign had ended abruptly. With vast amount of his Root dead, and the rest scattered on their missions, Danzo himself had died in the vast explosion.

Naruto's eyes widened as he froze, in the middle of training his Genjutsu. He reviewed the information, looking through every bit of information he now had in his grasp. Finally, he stopped staring in the distance, and nodded. This had accelerated his plans immensely, but that had not been a bad thing at all.

He felt a twinge of pity for Sasuke, but resolved himself firmly. He would survive at all costs. If Sasuke had to lose his eyes to affirm that goal, so be it. Plus, he reasoned, Sasuke had been a Psychopath. With no friends or goals aside from his own selfish reasons, Sasuke was already at his knees to even the slightest manipulation.

With the knowledge that data and abilities were heading his way, Naruto knew one thing: He couldn't return to Konoha, not when his clones were the only ones known to be able to explode violently. The smart ones, the Nara Clan, and the weary ones, the Aburame and Yamanaka, would immediately figure out the only one capable of such vast damage in the short time given. He couldn't return without a heavy risk of death.

Still, Naruto would need to get Jiriaya away from him, although him being dead would be preferable. Still, Naruto would wait and see what happened.

As it was, Naruto had some serious amount of work to do. He needed to prepare as much as possible for the potential battle that would occur when Tsunade meets up with Orochimaru to break the deal, since Naruto had persuaded her subconscious to reject the decision.

It had been a very awkward few days between Tsunade and Shizune. They had been unable to find the man that Shizune had snatched, and that had both disappointed. Not only that, but Shizune had been quiet and avoiding Tsunade at the same time, blushing heavily whenever she noticed Tsunade was in the room. Deciding enough was enough, Tsunade confronted Shizune.

She grabbed Shizune's shirt from the back of her neck, holding her firmly as Shizune tried to Shunshin away. After that failed to work, Shizune stopped moving altogether, as if hoping Tsunade would think she was a statue and not Shizune the human.

Tsunade turned Shizune around, holding her literally at arm's length while she said coldly. "You've been avoiding me since three days ago, Shizune."

Shizune's face was nearly beet red, and she had her eyes looking at any other direction besides directly at Tsunade. Tsunade whispered quietly, pain and sorrow deep in her voice.

"Look, I get it if you want me gone and never want to see me again, but I just wanted to apologize for what I did before you send me away from you forever. I took advantage of you, of your helplessness when you were fantasizing, and that was really wrong of me, and I'm sorry. I'll... Leave now."

Tsunade released her shirt from her grasp, having to choke out those last few words as tears dripped down her face. She had hurt the only person she had ever confided in, and that thought hurt her more than any physical wound had in decades. Before she could turn to leave, Shizune had grabbed her shirt, and hoisted her up, keeping her feet just off the ground.

Shizune's face had stopped blushing and was now pale. Her eyes were flinty however, and Tsunade flinched. Shizune had only ever gotten that angry at her when she had nearly bet Shizune's virginity in a gambling tournament. Needless to say, Shizune hadn't appreciated the sentiment.

Shizune then hugged her to her chest and whispered out quietly. "Don't leave me. I just... never knew if you'd want me around after that night. I thought you'd want me gone, since I didn't please you at all. Plus, every woman you'd ever done that to, you'd left behind by the next week's end."

"I assumed that was your way of telling me we were finished. I couldn't look at you in the eye and expect that conversation between us, let alone that looking at you just flashed that night at me, over and over again."

Tsunade hugged her tightly, without using her chakra strength. She whispered, her voice hard as steel. "Never."

The rest of the week had them being inseparable, even in bed. They didn't get frisky, mostly sticking to cuddles and deep tongue make-outs if they were feeling it a bit. Shizune admitted that she still liked men, that she just didn't feel the same 'spark' as Tsunade did. Tsunade remained understanding, even if she did squeeze Shizune's breast and whisper huskily that she'd like that threesome if they ever got around to finding that man.

Shizune had blushed heavily and squirmed a bit before glaring at Tsunade as if scolding her puppy. Complete with a mini Water Bullet to the face, with Tsunade sputtering. Shizune still held that 'any-favor-she-wanted-she'd-get' over Tsunade's head, mostly as a joke. Tsunade easily responded with groping Shizune's breast or ass if it was from behind, and cooing about what a wonderful, womanly, specimen Shizune was.

Shizune was not amused, although she did blush even when she scolded Tsunade about keeping her hands, and other body parts she warned when she saw Tsunade grinning widely while sticking her tongue out to lick her lips hungrily, to herself.

Unfortunately, they'd been unable to find the sweet gentlemen, making Shizune very sad. Tsunade cheered her up a bit pointing out that it may not be the only time a guy comes her way. Still, Shizune was hopeful she'd come across him later at some point.

The day of reckoning emerged, with Jiriaya finding Naruto doing his daily stretches before he began training. He warned Naruto flatly that they had to stop Orochimaru from being healed by Tsunade. Naruto merely nodded before both quickly went toward where they thought Tsunade would be.

They arrived just in time to hear Tsunade refuse the deal by trying to kill Orochimaru, only for Kabuto to stop her while telling Orochimaru her intentions. Jiriaya scowled when he was only able to summon a random small toad named Gamikichi.

Naruto stepped forward in front of Jiriaya, his mask hiding his wide manic grin as he slammed his hand into the ground while whispering quietly.

"Summoning Jutsu."

A large cloud of smoke emerged, and then faded swiftly, revealing Naruto and Jiriaya to be standing on top of a gigantic squid, at least twice the size of Manda and Katsuya. Orochimaru scowled in dismay before stating, trying to goad Naruto and/or his summon.

"Your immense size means your powers are severely limited while I have the advantage to crush you, Summon-san."

The squid's large eye narrowed, before a cold, dark, foreboding voice echoed from the very ground, as his mouth was underneath his head.

"My name is Jin of the Squids, King of its Deep Realm. We have not been summoned since the ancient Clan Wars, and were only removed from fighting as the Uchiha Clan had taken our legendary scroll through trickery. You believe us to be weak? Hmph. Squid Style: Swarm of Death."

The giant squid suddenly ripped apart into hundreds of smaller sized versions, all of which quickly fading into invisibility as they swam through the air. Manda tried to sense them by sticking his tongue out, before screeching.

Blood began spouting all around the snake summon, as the invisible squids dug deep into the snake's flesh, bypassing his scales like wet paper. Manda fell to the ground, dead, before its corpse was lifted into the air and consumed rapidly, not even leaving time to let the body return to its Summon Realm.

The giant squid reformed instantly, its large eye narrowed coldly as it commanded darkly. "That was the weakest of my abilities, Ninja. Understand this: My realm is the deepest, and the most powerful, as it is the closest to the center of the earth then any ground creature. Now I shall dismiss myself."

With a sharp pop, the squid vanished to reveal Jiriaya and Naruto on the ground again. Orochimaru was also on the ground, having jumped off of the snake at the sight of the swarm. Despite this, Orochimaru's left arm had been ripped off and eaten by the squid, while Kabuto had his left leg and torso chewed up.

Naruto remained impassive, even as he saw Kabuto healing his own injuries quickly. He estimated the healing process, and was impressed. His healing capacity was just underneath his own natural healing process. Orochimaru waited, looking for any signs of an attack at the ready.

Kabuto finished healing, now impressed with Naruto's summon. He said condescendingly.

"Naruto, did you assume that was all that would be needed to kill either of us? For that matter, why do you still insist on staying with a village that betrayed you by hiding information from you? Did you know they hid even information of your parents from you?"

Naruto remained silent and still, although Jiriaya jolted slightly in alarm before shouting, with a little panic in his tone.

"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld Jutsu!"

A gigantic swamp formed, spreading all around Orochimaru and Kabuto, although they had summoned a snake in retaliation, and were rather amused by the weak depth compared to his usual Swamp Jutsu.

Tsunade had remained in place on Katsuya, waiting patiently. She hadn't struck first because she had no desire to: She wanted to wait for an available time to strike.

Naruto was still standing quietly, before he whispered something that had both Jiraiya's and Orochimaru's eyes widening in shock and horror.

"Mass Shadow Clone Suicide Bomb."

The entire snake's head was blasted off, as both Orochimaru and Kabuto were suddenly blown to bits in a violent explosion, with them as the Ground Zero base.

Orochimaru survived, having reformed due to his Snake Bunshin. Kabuto did not fare as well, losing a good chunk of his left hand and arm in mid Shunshin from the blast.

Kabuto snarled at the brat. He dared to nearly kill him! Him! He was the same level as Kakashi Hatake!

Kabuto's thoughts stopped abruptly as a Shadow Clone, poised as a small dust mite, had burrowed through the boy's skin into his blood stream, before breaking his sword, which was really, really, small, into pieces. Metal suddenly expanded abruptly, shredding Kabuto's organs and blood vessels apart like clay. Kabuto's head suddenly popped apart with a loud crack as a gigantic metal fragment ripped the skull open like a watermelon.

The fragments vanished when the Shadow Clone also vanished. Orochimaru roared with fury at his lieutenant's death, running forward as he released Kusanagi along with his tongue toward Naruto.

Jiriaya jumped forward with a kunai in hand, but the tongue had grabbed Jiriaya and flung him miles away. Orochimaru's body suddenly split into many pieces, Kusanagi shifting and hilting into the ground. Tsunade appeared behind Orochimaru, her face blank.

The ground erupted from behind Naruto, revealing Orochimaru's real elongated head and neck complete with Kusanagi shredding apart Naruto's chest. Orochimaru hissed with enjoyment at hearing Naruto's gurgles of weakness before he fell silent, dead. That was, until Naruto's skin flaked off to reveal a piece of swapped snake skin, complete with hundreds of paper bombs.

Orochimaru reformed quickly, meters apart while he watched his other body, a clone formed out of rapid regeneration, was ripped apart by a well-timed swap with snake skin. Kabuto appeared nearby, grateful for Orochimaru's help in keeping him alive with a second Snake Clone.

Tsunade frowned when Kabuto suddenly formed near her, smirking while he splattered blood on her. She pretended to be shocked and stuck in position due to her, apparently now gone, blood phobia. Once he dropped his guard sufficiently, she cleaved him in half with a finger flick, flicking mere centimeters away from his stomach to cause the wind pressure from the flick shred him in half.

It turned out to be yet another Snake Clone, although Orochimaru's comment on the technique told the three ninja that the clone was Kabuto's doing this time.

Naruto was rather impressed. Despite his many simple and subtle attacks, along with intimidation through the giant squid boss, the three Sannin were very powerful in their own rights. Still, he mused regretfully, he couldn't have either of the two male Sannin remain alive for much longer. Since they were considerably weakened by now, due to multiple large jutsu on both sides, Naruto decided to play his first trump card.

Orochimaru scowled as he dodged to the side, avoiding Kabuto's sudden chakra scalpel attack. "Kabuto!" He hissed dangerously.

Kabuto's eyes blinked briefly, before smirking. "Are you sure all the labels were on the right packaging, Orochimaru-san?"

Orochimaru's eyes widened as the phrase struck him blindsided. Somehow Kabuto's mind had been altered, he affirmed as Kabuto wasn't acting like himself.

Kabuto suddenly snarled, grabbing his own head as he hissed out. "Get out of my head, Uzumaki. Get OUT!" He began moving around, as the two were clearly fighting for dominance over the body.

Orochimaru's eyes widened before narrowing as he looked at Naruto, whom was standing still. Orochimaru was about to strike forward, sending five snakes with Kusanagi copies after the brat, before the snakes were ripped apart by a Shadow Clone, smirking widely.

He easily dispatched the Clone with a quick snake-kunai surprise attack, frowning. His eyes widened as a palm of green chakra ripped itself through his chest. He looked at Kabuto, whose face had slackened. Orochimaru chuckled darkly.

"Did you assume that would kill me, Naruto-kun?"

Kabuto replied, indicating Naruto had obtained control of his body. "No. but the immense amount of chakra I'm pumping into the Shadow Clones I laced your true form with back in Konoha will do that easily enough. Mass Shadow Clone Suicide!"

Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock and horror, before his mind went blank forever.

Kabuto jumped back, as Orochimaru's corpse exploded in a shower of gore. He shrieked in rage, as he clamped his head again. "YOU KILLED OROCHIMARU-SAMA!" He squirmed heavily, as he began to vibrate with sheer fury.

After a while, Kabuto stopped shuddering, his eyes blanking out. After a good five minutes of stillness, Kabuto suddenly took a chakra scalpel and stabbed himself in the head with it. He fell to the ground, dead.

Jiriaya and Tsunade stared at Naruto, surprised that he'd been able to kill the Snake Sannin along with Kabuto. Suddenly, Jiriaya gasped, as blood began pooling out of his clothing, before falling to the ground. Blood pooled around him, and he gasped out for Tsunade, expecting her to heal him.

She never moved from her position, and Jiriaya died, never knowing how he died, only realizing he'd been betrayed by his only other equal. Naruto sealed the body of Kabuto and Jiriaya into two scrolls calmly, before his eyes narrowed.

Out of the ground, near an invisible set of clones that had been watching the perimeter incase Orochimaru or Kabuto tried to escape, a white snake was slithering away. Deciding that he should keep tabs, and that Orochimaru would make a good distraction, the set of clones quickly converged on the snake.

One began using his 'Genjutsu: Thousand Paths of Reincarnation', and the other seeded the snake with another forty clones. Once they deemed the Snake Sage's memory had been rewritten, they checked it twice over after a good four minute memory revision, up to the point after Tsunade tried to kill him with medical jutsu.

With this, they released the snake's mind, and dismissed themselves. Naruto nodded in understanding, while Orochimaru may have survived, it would be useful in the long run. Luckily, Naruto had garnered plenty of knowledge from Kabuto's mind, using many Clones transferring their minds and chakra into Kabuto continuously, multiplying the speed at which he absorbed Kabuto's knowledge and memories.

Still, he'd had to remain incredibly still and focused the entire battle in order absorb the knowledge properly. Definitely worth it though, as now he could practice his body back to shape on what Kabuto was capable of, not to mention for Tsunade to teach him even further on that prospect.

Tsunade and Shizune remained calm, their faces blank. Naruto watched them, as he knew his clones were busy at work manipulating their memories carefully to ensure their actions and brief seconds of control through the Yamanaka Jutsu would be as if they had done it of their own free will. The two quickly focused back, their eyes lighting up as their own consciousness returned.

They were impressed with Naruto, and Tsunade decided having a second apprentice would be nice. Plus, considering the way Naruto was eyeing Shizune's black hair and body, the fun between them was only just beginning. She felt slightly guilty for not healing Jiriaya, but she considered it justified: Jiriaya had stopped living, only pining after her and caring for the sham of a village. She had done him a favor.

The trio decided to head toward Wave Country, which Naruto decided to choose as his permanent base of operations in the time being. Naruto stopped briefly before leaving the area, turning around while observing the place.

This day, this place, marked the end of an era. The end of the Three Sannin.

End Chapter Seven


End file.
